Seeing you again
by Saciel
Summary: Alice back in London: Her sister seems to plan something and she is in for a surprising visit which results in her questioning of reason and reality. When people change in body instead in mind, she realizes a new enemy lurks in the shadows. ch.15!
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Somehow, this epilogue became a story. Now witness what happens when Alice realize that Wonderland wasn't something made in her mind, but that it touches reality very directly. You can find a short synopsis at my livejournal, I use the same nickname there.

**A/N:** I wanted to write an epilogue to the movie, an alternative ending. I loved the movie, it was a great movie and a great ending, but I was devastated. I felt so hopeless after the movie; I felt very sad. As I couldn't find any fiction that suited my needs, I decided to write one myself. I haven't written in a long time and this is the first fic I write in English (before, I only translated fics written in German). So, if anyone finds mistakes or awkward wording, please point it out to me and I will collect them for doing better.

This wasn't supposed to be an epic, maybe 3-4 chapters, but sometimes stories dance on the top of my nose and do what they want.

I'm happy about every kind of review! I take concrit and love it!

ETA: I have corrected some spelling mistakes.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any characters or locations from Lewis Carroll's novels _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking-Glass_, nor do I own any characters or locations from Tim Burton's _Alice in Wonderland_. All rights go to Lewis Carroll, Tim Burton, Linda Woolverton, Disney, etc.

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**Seeing you again**

Alice took a deep breath. She would swear the air had a different taste. It made no sense and her mind held that big sign in front of her mental eye: This makes no sense.

She shook her head, what happened to her? Since when was she one of those who couldn't think one step further as soon as something seemed illogical?

She knew the days where madness lay behind every corner were long gone, this, maybe, was the reason she felt the margins of her own mind. She didn't know yet if that was good or bad.

With a new, deep breath she opened her eyes again. The sea was more grayish than blue, for grey was the heaven above, it would rain soon. Now that was nothing causing suspiciousness in England.

England.

She wasn't here for a long time but now she came back to her home. She had seen so many things, so many wonders and so many things of madness she couldn't share with anyone for the fear of being thought as mad herself.

But how many bad things had she seen? How much malevolence experienced? She couldn't bear what happened soon after the company had landed successfully in China. They didn't stay alone for too long; other traders appeared brought something horrible with themselves: Laudanum.

They started to make great opium plants in India and yet they weren't suffice for those people, they started trading it into China. Alice had seen what that drug made of people; she had seen how people got sick of it and how it made them unable to work, unable to speak, unable to think.

At last she had to witness her own boss, Lord Ascot, the best friend of her father, fall victim to this horrible thing. It was harmless, he said, everyone does it, he said. Everyone working in China and everyone of the high class in England did it. Especially the artists and poets which were held like pets by the lords furthered the use of that laudanum. Now he was too sick to be involved in any direct activity and when it was decided that he went home, she decided to go with him.

Five years were gone by, but there hadn't been much of a change by now. Her sister Margaret had made herself a wonderful home; she knew nothing of the affair of her husband, he was too afraid of Alice and her new grown influence to ever start a new one.

Her mother had died more than a year ago and since then she hadn't heard much of her sister. But Alice knew she would be welcomed and that Margaret always kept a room for her, as it made no sense to own an own home If she wasn't there most of the year, for several years in a row.

A few days were gone when Alice snapped out of the clouds surrounding her mind. The welcome by Margaret and her husband was cordially but a bit distanced. Margaret hadn't gone well with the funeral of her mother, all alone, with no support by her beloved sister. Alice couldn't give her any support right then and she couldn't when she returned. Too many thoughts occupied her, coming back to this country, this town, to all these memories…

Those days, she had sat there in her chamber and gave her sister nothing but worries. She asked what went wrong, why she was that way, what she was missing and how she could help. But she couldn't do anything, it was nothing wrong. Alice was just overwhelmed by her own memories, her own thoughts.

Lord Ascot was back with his family, who now had to care for him. For the whole journey she had that job, caring for him, and it prevented her from thinking too much.

It was different in these days. She couldn't forget over the things that happened shortly before she began her big plans, she couldn't procrastinate. Now the thought of Wonderland was back. She came from a Wonderland, like she did before, but both were so very different. She had a new perspective on madness now and knew that not everything called madness was mad at all.

She knew why she had always felt well down there, especially the last time she went there, no matter under what strange and dangerous circumstances.

She knew that those madmen, that madness, weren't that at all. She like those people, she liked that world. It wasn't mad – it was different and through many people in England seemed to be deeply afraid of difference, all that she felt was curiosity – as it was always.

Alice knew that day she said farewell to the hatter it was a farewell forever. She had lied to him, knowing he would've tried to stop her otherwise and it would have hurt him even more to not be able to. She couldn't see him suffer; he was so nice that time, so totally different from their first encounter. He had changed a lot although he hadn't made up with Time yet when they met again – he had grown to be an adventurer, he had grown to be a hero in the moments most needed – a leader, a revolutionary, a loyal man to the Queen. She hadn't understood how he changed so much and why he was acting so strange in front of her, why he was calculating her height that often. What did become of him by now? Did he still have tea parties with Mallymkun and the Marchhare? Or was he calmly doing hats for the White Queen and her court? Did he remember her or did… he even exist?

After all that time she wasn't sure she hadn't made up everything or large parts of it… her visits to Wonderland always happened at very important moments of her life and they had always led to a big change, especially in her character. Maybe it was only her way of growing into an adult woman because since that time she never felt any presence of Wonderland. The blue butterfly she thought was Absolem had left as soon they had left the haven and since then she was all for herself.

And yet, through never being sure of reality and fantasy, she… missed them. She missed them all, she missed the adventures. It wasn't like she had none in the past years – she had more of them than enough – but that all didn't count without the right people at her side.

And those people never existed.

She stroke her fingers through her hair which she still preferred to wear unbound, for unbound she was. How could she bring herself to such torment? Why had she even started thinking of this!

Wonderland was a hallucination, not more, there was no evidence for it, how could she miss persons that were not even there and to whom she would never have a possibility of making contact again?

Even when she had those moments that she agreed with her heart, accepted that she wanted back into that word, she knew that… this would never happen. Even if that world existed, she had no way of going back and she knew that when she said the hatter goodbye. In the very moment everything she saw turned into smoke, she knew she had made the wrong decision and that she couldn't take it back. She had lived well with this decision and learned to make the best of it in her world – but now, she knew she wasn't happy with all the success she had and she wasn't too sure if she could ever be happy again.

This stingy feeling of never being able to feel happiness again should intensify in the coming days. She had opened up to her sister, much to her liking, and tried to find a way back into normal society. Not like that was something she ever was good in…

However after accomplishing the facsimile of normalness something bad happened: Margaret showed That Face.

Alice recognized That Face before and she knew too well that she didn't like it. It was That Face her mother had worn all too often and That Face was always worn by Margaret in company on such occasions. It was That Face which said: Oh Alice! I found someone wonderful for you! Will you now please marry, yes? Thanks! Bye!

It was the face that promised a perfect husband – on account of the norms and economics of the time she lived in. This meant a husband she would never touch with a pole if he was the last civilized man on this very planet. It was not like she had something against men all together – it was just how her mother and her sister never had considered what she wanted in a man: Kindness, openness, maybe some wit and especially a good heart. All her relatives had looked into was making a good financial deal or bringing her up in society – at best both.

She deeply feared That Face, because she was slowly running out of options how to turn down an offered hand, especially now that she was at home and had no big journey in front of her. All her business she could do in the headquarters, despite being a woman she would soon be the representative of the company. Her head ached while thinking that intensively of running away or making excuses why to not agree with the choice her sister had made. But then she saw something else: Margarets husband wasn't happy. Now that was a surprising development. Usually he was very happy when another husband was chosen for her, because that would mean he would soon be rid of her and he probably hoped she would loose her influence and become a dear housewife to whoever the new target was.

However he looked outright miserable now, whatever could be the reason for this?

At the dinner table, she felt a downright cold breeze running down her back when her sister opened her mouth to speak:

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TBC


	2. Who the hell is?

**Who the hell is…?**

_At the dinner table, she felt a downright cold breeze running down her back when her sister opened her mouth to speak:_

"My dear Alice, do you know that we have quite wonderful neighbor?"

Alice waited for the following advertisement. But there was none.

Usually, Margaret would have been talking by now about the uncountable amenities of The Chosen One, how it would benefit her financially, socially and her family and status as a whole. She would have praised his heritage, his manners, his fortune and probably his strict hand over women.

None of that happened.

She just sat in front of her and smiled.

Alice was astonished, this disrupted the usual way things went and she didn't felt that great about even having this strange, uncomfortable feeling about something not going the normal way. She never wanted to be -that- normal. However something in this disruption gave her a tingly shiver, something wasn't quite alright and she couldn't bear the silence and the broadly smiling face of her sister anymore – especially in the contrast of the dark, sulking brooding of her husband.

"… So?" She really couldn't think of anything better to ask and felt immediately stupid for that fragment.

Margaret beamed of joy "Indeed! And I …" her gaze fell upon her husband "… we…," she smiled assuring "We have invited him over for the spring lunch. Now isn't it quite a fantastic coincidence, that you arrived sooner than we all expected? Now you will meet him tomorrow!"

_And don't end as a spinster,_ Alice thought to herself.

"I don't know Margaret I…" she was harshly interrupted by her sister and the stern look on her face showed her, that she was deadly serious and wouldn't accept any resistance: "You come to the lunch. It's also your welcome back lunch, so don't dare not coming and driving roots into the floor of your room!"

Alice bit on her lips. She just had no chance, to not fully disappoint her still too caring sister, she had to accept the invitation and at least take a look at that man before running…

Alice took a deep breath. Why did she deserve all this? Couldn't they leave her alone? Everything she wanted to do… no, everything that was left for her to do, was business. She didn't care for all those societal things; she didn't care for status and everything that came with it. But now she sat here at a dinner table wearing a quite charming blue dress, that was partly made of silk, on a really quite charming spring day, her "Welcoming party" but more of a "Goodbye party" she guessed, it was noticeable how Margaret tried to step into the tradition of her mother in trying to marry her off. She loved her sister dearly, but she prayed it would stop. She knew with every possible husband whatsoever she would lose all the freedom she ever had and she had worked exceedingly hard for it.

Margaret was buzzing through the guests, many of them Alice didn't know much, as they were affiliates her brother in law had made in the past years during their institutional spring lunch. However busy her sister seemed, however, she still kept an eye on Alice, making sure she wouldn't suddenly jump up and vanish like she had done some times before. Suddenly Margaret seemed to be even more tensed and at the same time beaming than anyways and she made a subtle but hurrying gesture towards her husband, who realized that quite slow, but then moved a bit disapprovingly towards the blossomed gate of the garden.

Alice had good eyes and saw not that far away, near the street, how someone was led to the garden by the maid. That someone seemed to be a rather but not overly tall, lean man who just bent down to get something from the ground. Obviously that man wasn't only unwanted by her, he was clumsy, too.

While they were coming near, she saw that the man in the fawn-grey suit placed a cylinder back on his head. So he was a fashionable man, Alice wasn't sure if she could ever like someone superficial, too long had she tried to make her innerness become outness, but the cylinder was a little bit too fashionable for this place and time, a new chiqué from America, it seemed a bit out of place – none of the other gentlemen at the lunch party wore a hat, none.

However a maybe fashionable man wasn't the big problem she had with that unwanted contender, she didn't have a grudge against American hats, either – it was the sting into her heart that this piece of fashion gave to her. The shape and form of wearing it remembered her too much of someone else. Someone who she had betrayed, someone she would never see again, which only made it worse.

That man and the lot came nearer; she caught the weird look of his hair. It wasn't really weird, not as weird as she knew several examples of. The intractable hair was a bit darker than hazelnut brown and it was unusually long, it reached his shoulders and maybe even a bit farther down. He would surely catch the eye of all the guests. The eyes of Alice, however, got caught by another development: Margaret wavered cheerfully over to greet him and possibly just grab and drag him in her direction. Right now, through, she didn't look and Alice took this opportunity and RAN.

Guests would later tell that they only felt a breeze and saw the hint of a very light blue dress vanishing into the hedges, it was quite a spectacle again, as always with this Alice.

Alice tried to strike out every sense of normal in her mind. But her mind just wouldn't shut up: She should have stayed there, it was very late for marrying and she would stay alone, what if Lord Ascot finally fell ill from the drug? What when his son took over? He still held a grudge too her. She could loose her work and would fall into debt to her sister and even worse, her brother in law. They both really wanted the best for her and it was unfair to run again and gave her into the pity of the guests who were already used to this kind of event. That noisy voice in her head told her how mean she was, how egoistical, how selfish and how damn desperate although she had no chance, she couldn't run forever.

This voice in her head was reason and she had never given another thought to it, but now she felt her legs slowing down. She shook he head, felt the tears in the corner of her eyes. Why must that noisy reason try to convince her of the better -now-? It wasn't fair, she was already on the run and she still wasn't able to marry a man she neither loved nor even knew, not for the best social reasons there ever would be. Why was that reason so annoyingly insistent?

Again she tried to force those thoughts out of her head, she had to concentrate, to focus on running, and run she did as fast her feet let her.

However the garden of her sister, through partly connected with a foreign park, wasn't nearly as large as the Ascots estate. There was no hedge labyrinth and places to run to unseen were limiting themselves more and more. At last she found herself in a corner surrounded by high hedges, with a quite small pavilion, white garden furniture… this had to be the nest her sister had written about in her letters. The nest she withdraw too with her husband when they wanted to be unseen and thinking of this, Alice felt like an intruder and even more bad.

Kept in these dark thoughts she had no chance of hearing the steps behind her. People had stopped long ago to run after her, they knew it was of no use and would take their lovely while slowly walking till they found her – usually to scold or shoot disapproving looks at her, which she sometimes felt she earned and at the same time not.

Suddenly someone grabbed her arm and she shrieked from the shock and tried even more to scream when a hand was put over her mouth. She struggled desperately; whoever that was, she would give him a worthwhile fight! To the contrary of being grabbed and carried off, she was turned around and now faced someone holding out one finger in front of his lips to show her to be quiet "Shhh," then slowly retrieving his hand from her mouth.

Alice didn't feel this anymore, through, she felt nothing sensual for a moment, neither the ground beneath her feet nor the wind stroking through her curly hair.

She just looked into his eyes. Between those streaks of brown there, there were big, green eyes opened widely, more widely than from any caution. She -knew- these eyes; they felt just like the first breath of English air she had drawn while still onboard the ship that took her back home. They felt like the voice of her sister, which was similar to the voice of her mother. They felt like the worn out blue dress that still lay in one of her boxes, because she never had dared to give it away.

They felt so familiar, so touching, they easily brought memories back she had casted aside. However the thought that crossed her mind now couldn't be, so she closed that chest in her mental wardrobe again.

Slowly waking up from the daze that in reality hadn't lasted for more than a few seconds but felt like hours, she still recognized that this was the man her sister wanted to introduce her to. That meant he didn't know her yet and she had made a horrible first impression, why did he come after her?

"Who ARE you? What do you want from me?" she screamed in a not that loud tone at him.

He didn't seem too angry and he didn't seem too shocked, he neither seemed to hold an open grudge against her. First he straightened himself and then he straightened his suit which lay over a fine white shirt. Miraculously the cylinder was still on his head and didn't fell down during the quite hasted hunt he must have run after her. He didn't seem to be too annoyed, he didn't seem to think of her as mad, he neither answered her first question but then came a bit nearer again and offered his hand to her:

"I've come to bring you back."

Alice heart sank; of course he just wanted to bring back order to the party and took this deed if he wanted to make a good impression, as he was a new neighbor counting the telling of her sister. But then she sensed that the sentence wasn't finished by now and the hand still offered to her.

**"… for tea."**

**

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**

TBC

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**A/N**: Yes, I am indeed able to write direct speech. No worries, there will be more in the future, but until now I felt more comfortable with the internal thoughts and feelings of Alice, I felt it was important.

This is where the story would have ended if it didn't have a will of itself. However, it has and you know what this story also has? Annoyingly many questions, so I'm destined to answer these questions to my best capabilities in the following chapters. Questions like: Is that the Hatter? (I guess you can answer this by now) What happened to him? Why does he look so strange? Is it glamification-fic? (No, it isn't) And what happened to the other inhabitants of Underland?

The answers to these questions and many more you will find in the coming days. I hope you like the fic so far, I know I am very fond of the word "very" and I promise to use a thesaurus for the next chapter. As usual, if you find mistakes I am more than glad if you point them out so I can correct them. I have also corrected the first chapter already.

Please review if you like. I'm a bit insecure because I haven't written in a long time and only slowly start to become warm again.


	3. Hesitations, Invitations, Complications

**Hesitations, Invitations, Complications**

"_I've come to bring you back."_

"… _for tea."_

Alice felt her heart bouncing, speeding up, it felt as if her chest was exploding…

"Alice?"

… But nothing of that translated into enthusiasm, so the words broke rather quietly over her lips: "Hatter?"

"Tarrant Hightopp, always at your service," he said with a boyish smile, shortly taking the cylinder down, then putting it back on his head. He honestly felt a bid naked when he didn't wear it and he honestly thought of it of too small. He really needed to make a new one, but this was the one he got and he hadn't intended to stay as long as he would need a new one.

She still couldn't grasp this rupture in reality standing in front of her "Is that really you?"

"Pah! Of course it is me, silly girl!" He said even more enthusiastically "If it were not me, who else would I be? I would be another person but I don't know one, as I only know myself. If myself isn't me, I wouldn't know myself and this would be…"

"… bad?" Alice asked assuring, stepping a bit closer.

Tarrant stopped, playing boyishly with his hands "Yes," he said smiling a smile only the Mad Hatter could smile and suddenly Alice felt very relieved. All the worries of the past days (years) and all the thinking (agitation) of the past fell from her shoulders. Wonderland existed, it wasn't a hallucination, the Hatter stood in front of her although he did look kind of diff… she could've sworn that his eyes grew bigger, more familiar.

"But Hatter," she asked "how have you come here?"

The Hatter took off his hat and started to run his fingers over the flap, also in that boyish manner, again deciding that this hat was definitely too small: "I honestly have not the quietest idea."

Now that wasn't the answer Alice had hoped for nor ever expected. What should that mean; he didn't know how he came here? It could mean everything now, didn't he know the way exactly, just like she didn't or… "You don't know how you have come here?"

His face, which had changed from happily-expecting into a bit embarrassed, turned now quite sad "No, I don't. But Alice we have to…"

"Oh what ever should I do? There is a large mass of guests waiting for us and my sister… she expects me to marry you and… I can't do this all, not now, I thought I might've been mistaken, I thought it wasn't real but now I…" She shook her head in confusion and desperation.

The Hatter bowed a bit to look into her eyes, his eyebrows lifted, front head and nose narrowed, a bit suspicious but even more worried: "Alice, now you sound even more confusing than I and even I often can't understand myself."

He said that with such sorrow in his voice that Alice snapped out of it, somehow she felt he was deeply disappointed and she couldn't make out yet what it was, but he was going to tell her:

"So you really have forgotten over me?"

That look, these words, they made her heart hurt and she touched his cheek with her fingers, stroke over it hesitantly, it was real… "That's not it," she said, "But I have people who expect me to do certain things and… and now…" she looked deeply into his eyes "Hatter, they think you are a neighbor, a normal neighbor and now they will have expectations in you and… whatever should we do now?"

Alice felt that stingy voice in her head again, her reason. Again she was in a desperate situation, what if she imagined this again? What if she woke up and he was gone again?

"Well," he said, "I… am your neighbor."

She gave him a confused look.

"I live over there," he pointed to the other side of the hedge, which still left some yards to the next property. That explanation didn't seem to help loose Alice confusion in any way so he explicated:

"I arrived here earlier, however I was too late and you had already set sail again…"

_That means… all the past year he lived here for himself? _Alice thought to herself, she couldn't quite believe it and she couldn't imagine how the Hatter had survived the past time among, well, normal English people.

Tarrant added another line: "We should go back now."

Alice winced, she really didn't want to "I can't, what will I tell them…"

Again, he offered his hand to her but this time she took it.

"Trust me."

"ALICE! There you are! You really took your time, haven't you?" Margaret exclaimed when she walked towards her, her sister then turned to Tarrant: "Thank you Mr. Hightopp for your quick acting, I can't express how sorry I am. You have to forgive her, she just came back to England shortly before and hasn't felt comfortable in the past days."

Tarrant looked at Alice from his eye corners and smiled a distinct smile that gave Alice a shiver she couldn't identify, but it didn't feel that bad: "I understand, but as I told you I've only come to this occasion as I wanted to excuse myself. I've got really important work to do, therefore I can't accept your generous invitation now, my work calls be back right this moment."

"Oh," Margaret said and her eyes darkened a bit, "That is very unfortunate, of course I will excuse you, Mr. Hightopp. It's a pity you can't attend." She didn't really look at Alice but Alice felt them falling on her anyway, however she trusted the Hatter not to inflict even more fury of her relative on her and with this she had decided well:

"But let me extend an invitation myself; on the way back I've had a lovely chat with Ms. Kingsley." With his beaming smile that didn't stand in concurrence to that of her sister at the evening before and the broad gestures, Alice felt he overdid it a bid, however her sister was thrilled, "Therefore I would like to invite her over for tomorrow evening, when all the work is done. Of course, only if the Lady agrees" – it wasn't as if Alice had any freedom to not agree – "That way we can get to know each other and prepare for next weeks spring lunch, which falls into my responsibility and of course your husband and you are invited." The smile stuck on his face in a quite charming manner.

The rambling, as rambling was one of the things the Hatter did best, overwhelmed Margaret to the fullest. That way the Hatter had sold her the idea of Alice visiting him the next day alone, something a honorable older sister wouldn't allow, through however honorable Margaret was she hadn't realized it in this waterfall of words.

"This is such a charming idea, Mr. Hightopp, I'm sure Alice will agree." She looked daggers at Alice that wouldn't have left her another chance even if she ever had considered one "Of course," she said and lowered her head in a timid matter that would've maid her sister suspicious if she wasn't that lucky right now how this Chosen One wasn't scared away yet. Maybe she had finally found the right man for her sister, she dearly wanted her to be happy and lead a secure life – in England.

Without the possibility of sharing more words, 'Mr. Hightopp' was seen off back through the blooming gate. Alice followed them for a bit and earned a reassuring glance by the Hatter who now felt less confident than before and didn't seem to be happy having to leave her. Margaret was in the best mood, she felt a deep connection to that charming neighbor and she was so terribly sure that his surviving of the first run of Alice was a sign of fate. Her husband on the other side couldn't have watched that development more disapprovingly – and even this expression was quite euphemistic.

When he was gone, Alice went back to one of the diner tables. For the rest of the lunch party, she had some chitchat with some people she knew somehow or not. Although her head was entirely elsewhere and she didn't pay much attention to anyone or concentrate on any conversation, all too often she had to be reminded of her being in company. This way, she was a prime example of cloud-headedness. It conjured an eternal smile to her face, watching her little sister like that.

_Yes,_ she thought to herself _**Fate, indeed. **_

_**

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TBC

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**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews so far! They made me really happy and I feel more confident now.

This chapter is a (little) bit shorter, but I felt it was the right moment to make a break.

Sorry that the inner thoughts look a bit strange, but this website doesn't accept my markings, pff.

In the next chapter there will be a bit more action and we will see some old friends, also we will come one step nearer to what happened to the Hatter and why he lived in England for the past year – also more interestingly: How.


	4. The Wrong Skin

**The Wrong Skin**

Alice picked at her curls to move them in a somewhat adequate manner into a lose braid. She was kind of anxious; she still couldn't believe that all through her husband-unnerving-chatter Margaret still wasn't aware of her solo-invitation for the evening. Her older sister wasn't stupid and usually of high attentiveness, her not realizing of the situation was more than strange, it was almost… magical?

Or did she interpret too much in these things?

How could she even think about that, the Hatter had stood in front of her, disguised in the shape of a quirky but yet normal English gentleman. _I guess I should stop being surprised by things,_ but this was easier thought than done.

The dress she wore was similar to her old blue dress, yet it had slivers of silvery silk implemented. It was a more adult, more sophisticated, fine dress. It perfectly reflected her inner diremption, she was torn between her younger self that still believed in wonders and her recent, adult self that had given up to hope for any wonder. Alice closed the window of her room, gazed upon the layers of green outside that led to the neighbors' property, which was inhabited by a certain Hatter right now. The past events were incomprehensible as they happened, so, she decided, it was the best way to meet destiny in a few minutes, because answers wouldn't come flying to her, just like usual she had to find them herself.

A few minutes later she went quietly down the stairs and sneaked to the door. There was no problem yet but she didn't feel like tempting fate. Alice slid through the door and took a deep breath when she was outside. Leaving the Manchester property, she realized that the street was entirely empty.

_They'll probably have dinner already_, she thought about the missing signs of life on a mild spring evening. It was a bit awkward, through, and because of this awkwardness she hastened her pace.

Finally she arrived at the reality of the Hatter, finding the gate already opened. It was no big estate but just as the other houses around here, it wasn't small either – it blended perfectly in but shouldn't it lie far outside of what a hatter could make?

Some steps more and she stood in front of a door, which was quickly opened in exactly the same moment she wanted to ring the bell. "Alice!" the Hatter cheered "You actually came! Come in, Alice, come in…"

Faster than she could move she was already dragged in, the door behind her closed and shoved into the parlor "We don't have enough time, enough time…"

"You sound like the White Rabbit!" Alice said, "Why don't we have enough time?"

The Hatter stopped shoving her and looked confused "… I don't know? I just… have this feeling that we have not much time left…"

"And even if we had no time left it would still be too much!" Shouted an austere but squeaky voice and the Hatter looked immediately at the door to the left, where a small maid with mousy-blonde hair and dark eyes stood, swinging a broomstick like a sword "I can't believe we are still here doing this mockery!" she shouted again.

"But Mallymkun, do you see? She actually came!" The Hatter started,

"OhmyGod!" Exclaimed Alice in a short heap of breath as she saw the girl entering the parlor in an angry pace "Mallymkun is that you? Oh my… what happened to you?"

Short-tempered the ex-dormouse strode forward and snapped: "I don't know what happened! Nobody knows what happened! But that's your fault, just as usual!" With her wild gesturing the broomstick appeared just as dangerous as her sword with which she had partly blinded the Bandersnatch.

"My fault?" Alice asked disbelieving,

"It is always your fault! Every time something terrible happens you are there!"

The Hatter seemed apologetic and tried to calm his friend with open hands "Now don't you think that's a bit unfair to…"

"Unfair? Unfair?" Mallymkun shrieked, "I tell you what is unfair, look at this is!" she spun slowly around "I was a -beautiful- dormouse with a -beautiful- tail and -perfect- small eyes and now I'm… I'm…THIS!"

Her voice sounded to Alice as if she was tearing up, which of course would never happen and if it happened, Mallymkun would never admit it.

"I'm very sorry for you…"

"Oh I hope that!" The humanized dormouse snapped again,

"But I still don't see why I am to blame for this." Alice finished the sentence with a more stern voice, as she wouldn't accept being talked to like this. Mallymkun was good at heart but she and Alice never had a good relationship, possibly because the dormouse saw concurrence for the Hatters attention in her.

While she was thinking about it… the Hatter seemed terribly quiet and as she turned towards him he seemed deeply in thoughts as she could recognized from the profound frown and the dark layer over his bright green eyes. Suddenly he snapped out of it and his mimic brightened "I know what will help us," he said "Ah good old cup of tea!"

Tarrant went past the two ladies, or one lady and a dormouse, to the rather small kitchen Mallymkun came from – quite obviously avoiding the conflict. Mallymkun glared at Alice but Alice felt no mood to be submitted to more accusations by the dormouse. Instead she lifted her chin and walked into the kitchen, followed by a scowling bewitched Mallymkun.

The Hatter seemed to be well acquainted with the kitchen because his fingers were as swift making tea here as they were in Underland. This way Alice had to remember that he was already living in England for the past year and again she felt very worried – this time not for her mental health but for the life those two must have let, somehow forced into wrong bodies.

"So," she said looking up from the cup of tea the Hatter had put in front of her before sitting down – soon followed by his friend – "I still know even less than you, could you tell me what happened in the past year, at least what you can still remember?"

The Hatter caught her eyes and then looked down into his cup, one hand fastened around it and tipping against the brim:

"I still remember Underland," he said, "Everything until the… day you left… promising to come back…"

Alice noticed a bitter hunk clotting together in her stomach; she had lied to him and was too aware of it.

"I remember the years after that, how Queen Mirana restored the kingdom and made everyone feel a lot better," he smiled thinking of that development. "There were some problems at the west border…" of which he and Mallymkun had taken care of, something he left out of his tale, "But everything was fine, I guess, but not everything was fine because you promised coming back, yet you didn't."

Alice felt even guiltier than before, it didn't seem like the Hatter intended to have that worried and hurt a face, but Mallymkuns angry gaze was a hint, too.

"Then I don't remember what happened…" he started only to be interrupted by Mallymkun:

"I still remember you sitting on the floor like a wet sac of Quiddleditch and not going out for weeks, not even for tea. And how you left the Marchhare all alone at tea time, letting him throw the cups everywhere till the whole clearing was covered with them, you even let him alone now! Imagine what he must've been like alone in the past year!"

The Hatter stared straight onto the table not letting a single emotion reveal what was going on in his head after this desperate rant by his best friend.

"Someday, I was here," he started again, "I suddenly woke up laying on the floor in this bleak dress and when I got up, I sat in front of a mirror and I was…" he was silent for a moment "I wasn't me, at least, I didn't look like me, but still felt like me, so I guessed it was me at all." Yet, that had taken a while, he sat on the bed behind him for an hour, staring into the mirror and figuring out who he was.

"My house wasn't there anymore, neither was my tea and…. and my hat, my favorite hat…" one hand immediately went up to his cylinder to check that at least any hat was still on his head. "Then I called for my friends, I called for the Marchhare, 'Marchhare!' I called, but there was no answer. I called for Mallymkun but there wasn't an answer either. I called for Chessur, as he is often quite hard to see, even if he's there, you know? 'Chessur!' I called but although he wasn't to see he wasn't there either…" a moment of uncomfortable silence again, he swallowed and told: "Late I found Mallymkun in a corner of this kitchen, crying…"

"Oh, will you shut up now?" she cried angrily and obviously tensed, her hands clenching at her gown and one around the broomstick she still held – it comforted her, but you shouldn't approach her about that.

The kitchen went quiet. Alice clenched her own fingers into her dress, her heart ached. She didn't understand how it could happen, but what if she really was at fault for this?

How could she live with being to blame for all that pain her friends were clearly feeling? They had suffered, she could see that. The pain filled up the room, it was even to taste from the air. Alice barely dared to ask but decided to do it anyway: "And then?"

The Hatter took a sip from his tea cup, then drank it all out and put it on the saucer with a force that the now empty tea cup was split by a fissure right through the middle. The skin around his eyes darkened noticeably but his eyes stayed green:

"We were quite confused, you know? We had no idea where we were, nor what happened or anything. Seeing Mallymkun as a human was not really something I'd ever expected but for some reason I couldn't believe her when she told me she was a dormouse at first, through I had known her for years." He looked at Alice again "Something happened to us, Alice, something that doesn't let us figure it out by ourselves. We tried to go back to Underland remembered what you told us, so we dug holes into the garden… very many holes… then we tried every mirror in this house… and dug even more holes but they weren't the right kind of holes and if there was any we hadn't a chance recognizing it, because there is no visible difference between holes. I mean there are broad holes and not so broad, deep and not so deep, but you could dig them deeper if you had the right tools only you don't know if a narrow hole is still narrow if you broadened it or if it's no…"

"Hatter?" Alice interrupted his rambling affectionately; the Hatter stopped and looked at her

"Yes?"

"Go on."

"Somehow we lived through that time," he said "I'm not sure how because Alice… Alice something terrible happened! We started forgetting… actually forgetting ourselves."

"YOU forgot yourself" Mallymkun added confidently, putting her snub nose into the air "-I- was sure who and what I was the whole time!"

"Until you started cleaning the floor," amended Tarrant in a voice that was a little too casual.

Mallymkun turned actually pink, being exposed this way and defended herself by stating that -someone- had to clean up.

The Hatter turned back to Alice "I lost all memory of myself". His voice was breaking her heart, he sounded like a boy that stood in front of an expensive yet broken vase, only it seemed to be his life that was broken now.

"Over time I started questioning myself, I'm used questioning myself but about things not about… my own self. I – I – I started thinking that maybe… everything was just a dream. You always told me it was a dream, too, and that you would awake soon. So I guessed I wasn't a fantasy of you at all, maybe I just dreamed too… but I had no memories of this house either and I didn't know anyone so it was impossible that I ever lived here… then I got to know the neighbors and … somehow the memory of Underland… completely faded. I forgot who I was and what was real, I forgot about my friends and… I almost forgot how to make hats, can you imagine that?"

The only thing he never had forgotten was Alice, or at least that he was waiting for someone, but every time he saw a blue dress, he remembered again that he was waiting for Alice.

"Shortly…" Mallymkun admitted quietly, "I doubted myself, but then…" her voice grew more secure "I remembered my great strength as a dormouse! I gave some materials to the Hatter, so he could do what he does best, then slowly he remembered again, a little."

"Yet," the Hatter said "I didn't remember to be the person I was, it is as if two lifes were thrown together… the life in Underland and this, and the life in Underland became less and less real suddenly… I felt a kind of a stingy voice inside my head," his eyes grew wide "I'm used to voices, but I never heard that before. This voice always told me that it couldn't be right, that I was fantasizing, nothing of Underland was real and that I must be quite mad."

Then he beamed broadly "Yet mad I am. We are all quite mad in Underland, so this voice had to be mad, too."

This reasoning was a bit hard to understand for Alice but as she knew the Hatter was her Mad Hatter, she nodded.

"So I remembered being me again" he said "Through I was still here, still doubting and yet not doubting, for I was sure to be myself just… **wearing the wrong skin."**

**

* * *

**

TBC

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**A/N**: I'll make a break here, because otherwise the next break would be very uncomfortable. I've fleshed my plot out by now and I fear it will take more than five chapters to finish this story… sorry about wrong advertising but I wasn't aware of this development myself.

Yet I don't want to run through the plot, I want to explore some of the cute little moments in this story which came far too short during the movie.

I noticed that it's a bit hard to characterize the Hatters speed patterns, as I hadn't the chance to see the English version yet, except for trailers. I'm starting to read the book to the movie now and I hope it will help me a bit.

I hope you all enjoy the story so far and that you'll stay with me, there are still many mysteries to be solved and some of the solutions will come at a rather late point, however do not fear, soon we will see Wonderland again.

Please C&C, thank you all for reading this, your favs make my day! -smiley here-


	5. The Broken Reason

**The Broken Reason**

Alice felt icy fear running up her back, while deep guilt tore in her stomach. These both persons in front of her, who she held dearly, suffered so much. Somehow she must have been the cause for this; something made something happen and did something to her friends. But who or what was responsible for this something?

Who or what could be powerful enough to bring them to her world, subjected to major transformations?

Alice started to think but her reason was very uncommunicative right now, it was probably in a snit because it was proven to be wrong about Wonderland after all.

She thought about the late Red Queen and her Knave but although both of them were rather evil and capable of gruesome things, she highly doubted they could fabricate anything like this. Even if so, there wasn't any way to see where the advantage of banning the Hatter and Mallymkun to her world would be.

"But what will we do now?" she said quietly, not really asking and neither only thinking it.

"Well, isn't that obvious?" the Hatter said, "We go back."

"How? Do we know a way back?"

"She does," said the Hatter and gestured towards Mallymkun, who in that moment looked as proud as ever:

"Of course I do! I'm an experienced swordswoman and not only do I know the art of fighting but also of localization!" she boasted "I've found an opening on the far outside, near the hedge. However…" the last part she mumbled, not comfortable speaking about overly sensitive things "I had the feeling that we couldn't pass through without you."

"When will we go?" Alice didn't even waste a thought about not going. She had to, first it was her due for hurting her friends, second she would finally see a lot of friends again and find out whatever happened here, at last and at the most important position, she could finally escape Reason, who was taunting her all the past time.

"Now, of course..." said the Hatter in a tensed voice, looking at her with an expression like she really should know better, as he already stated: "we have no time."

"The earlier we go, the faster we will be ourselves again," added the dormouse "However I don't know what you are supposed to become again."

The sting hurt, but Alice knew that through all anger Mallymkun was a loyal, trustworthy friend who just was undergoing hard times. She still remembered how she felt when her body consistently shrunk and grew, was bended and stretched. She could hardly imagine how it would be to be a dormouse, so it made sense that Mallymkun was very unhappy about finding herself as a human.

"I can't go right now…" she began but was interrupted by the Hatter

"Of course you can, nobody holds you and there are no bonds around your feet."

She took a deep sigh and answered: "I can't. There are still questions I have to answer. Things I have to do."

The Hatter stared at her and Alice saw something broken inside him where she didn't thought there was anything more left to break. His eyebrows lifted, his eyes seemed bigger, corners of his mouth sank: "Not this again…" he said, not the same words as when she left him the last time.

He brooded, seemed to implode into himself just for a short moment, then suddenly his figure spread some kind of darkness when he radically unfolded into a standing position, jamming his fist to the table:

"NO! NOT again! Come –with- me, Alice!" he blustered; his green eyes had turned into a rather fiery amber.

"Not like the last time! You said you would come back, Alice, you promised! But you lied, you didn't come and so I came for you," he offered his hand in a more daring manner "Come. With. Me."

Alice gulped, stricken by the determination in his eyes. He sounded full of hot anger, dark and dangerous and others might have been terribly frightened by his current demeanor, but he couldn't fool Alice Kingsley. She could see behind the curtain, as she could before _And I should have done it, _she scolded herself. Determination was the main factor in this; it wasn't anger as much than fear of being left behind, left alone again. When they had met again, they were both outsiders of society. They had found friendship because they understood each other. When she had gone, she had been selfish – it was all too clear now – not considering his state, not thinking about what would become of him. It had been cruel but at that time she had no other choice, just as she hadn't now. She understood his feelings, through. He was scared and it was obvious that he wouldn't let her go if his call counted.

However it didn't, she had learned to prevail among men and she wouldn't let herself be submitted by command, on the other hand through she wasn't fond of hurting him out of defiance.

She took his hand carefully and then she pulled him slightly closer to narrow the distance between them, looking him into the eyes and whispering in a calm but irrevocable manner:

"I can't. Not now, not this evening. I have a family I need to see off. But I will come with you tomorrow. Just let me go now."

The Hatter wasn't thrilled about her pulling him closer in the first moment, he was skeptical during her short speech but slowly calmed himself, his eyes becoming dark green.

When Alice had ended, he put his other hand over hers and caressed her fingertips "Tomorrow, then." he said and with a slight tint of orange around his pupils and a large part of japing: "If you don't show up, I will get you."

Alice smiled when she held his gaze, watching him fight with his own emotions more successfully than she ever saw it before. "I'll allow you to get me, then," she responded.

Tarrant led her to the front door, opened it for her: "You'll come back?" he asked again.

"Yes." she didn't feel the need to say more and strode past him, yet turned around at the last stair step "A good night, Hatter, Mallymkun." The latter had stood near the Mad Hatter, watching her suspiciously but turned away now. Alice however still looked at the Hatter, whose gaze still lay upon her. "Don't be afraid," she whispered really quietly, hardly enough to reach the Hatters ears.

His nodding wasn't visible either, but his eyes told enough. He stepped back in and closed the door.

Alice was alone with her thought now, as she walked over to Manchester property. The life on the streets had come to a halt again, only that around this time it was less suspicious, the sky had already turned dark and if Alice wasn't mistaken that wasn't solely because of the set sun, it seemed that a storm was coming.

* * *

Later that night the storm was there, thick rain splashed against her window, blinding lightning was accompanied by earsplitting thunder. A real monstrosity of a storm, yet the youngest of the Kingsley sisters couldn't care less.

She sat on top of her bed and wrote the approximately seventh version of her goodbye, the former versions lying scattered among the floor. She had really tried to tell her sister she was going away during supper, yet her sister was very desperate about her coming back early with no dinner. She interpreted it that things had gone very bad and she was happy to see her sister well, yet her new hopes were gone and the sorrow about her sisters' future back.

Margaret didn't really listen to her and even if, she was too depressed, so Alice hadn't the heart to tell her about her leaving face to face.

She needed half of the night to finally write a letter that expressed her feelings somewhat adequately, not ungrateful for her sisters kindness, considering her all encompassing worry and love for her, but decidedly stating that she would be gone for a time with no definite time of return – assuring her that nothing bad happened and she would be well even if she hadn't the possibility of writing her soon. She wanted Margaret to not worry too much and know how much she loved and thanked her for everything.

In the best case Margaret would accept it and through probably worry, feel the best for her. In the worst case she would probably think that she had eloped with Hatter, through Alice decided that wasn't too bad at all, as Margaret would maybe feel right about her Chosen One.

She slept a few hours, but in the early morning she was awake and full of energy. Alice couldn't remember the last time she felt that, the thought about going back to Wonderland wasn't too bad anymore. She sleeked her sheets flat, putted the bedspread on top and the letter on top of the bedspread, now safely kept in an envelope addressed to her sister and her sister alone. She had written something about her money in it, a part of it should be for Margaret, just in case her husband finally called nuts if she didn't come back… her sister shouldn't be alone and helpless.

Quickly she packed what she would really need in Wonderland – comfortable clothing, hard shoes, whatever. She wasn't really thinking about it as the nervousness rose from her stomach towards heart and head. In a hurry she plucked her hair into a handy braid and smiled the last time at herself in the mirror. _Goodbye mirror. Goodbye room. Maybe this is the last time I see you._

Without a sound she stepped out of her room and closed the door, she flew down the stairs

_Goodbye stairs, Goodbye house,_

She sneaked outside, the air felt almost fresh for the city and the breeze was quite cold, she stood on the highest step for a moment.

_Goodbye, Margaret. I love you._

She swallowed and felt the tears shoot into her eyes, a tickling feeling in her upper nose. She stood still and took a deep breath till the feeling was gone.

With a courageous look on her face she grabbed the handle of the suitcase more tightly, flitting through the garden to the front gate, turning around the edge when she was finally covered by the hedge.

The first sunbeams rained over the horizon and fought their way through trees and buildings until it filled the landscape with orange-redness.

Alice stood in front of the Hatters front door, solely engulfed by the freezing shadow of his house, all around her everything was touched by bloody red warmth, steadily turning into golden light.

She drew a breath **and knocked.**

* * *

TBC

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**A/N:** I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I wasn't sure about the Hatters changing eye colors. Personally, I'm really fond of that trope, however I've heard more than enough rants about it. Then I read up on the character in Burtons movie, Johnny Depp as well as Burton himself have described the Hatter as a living mood ring, so I think it will be okay when I go with it. I promise it isn't just a gag; it will become important in the future.

In the coming chapter I plan to explore some thoughts of the Hatter and show more about the things that happened in the past year.

RnR, please *smile*


	6. Flashes of Light

**A/N** With the suggestion of Night-Light, I've left this chapter left-centered and also changed the first two. The others will follow as I correct them.

* * *

**Flashes of Light**

When the door closed behind him, his mouth felt dry.

The past minutes everything felt so right, troubled but right. Since he finally saw Alice again on the day before it felt like the sorrowful days of the past year were erased or had at any rate benefited to lead to happiness again. Yet there wasn't much happiness now.

Alice had rejected him, again. She didn't want to go with him, yet she agreed out of conscientiousness. That realization left a bitter taste behind. Maybe he was wrong at last; maybe he was wrong all along.

After Alice had faded away, literally, he had tried to live his life like it was before. However he couldn't live as before, because before he hadn't had made up with time and before he had waited for Alice to come back. He remembered that even out of time it took a painful long while and he didn't want that again. Keeping in mind he also had some things more to do than just drink tea. Through it took him a pretty long time to come to this conclusion, time during which he had only sat there like the sac of Quiddleditch Mallymkun had called him more than once.

The White Queen owned the throne anew and that finally meant for him he had to be back in action. After supplying the whole court with hats, things turned serious and he had more than enough to do to live up to his oldest task. Mallymkun was a great help then, as always, he could always count on her. Things would be much more miserable than anyway if it hadn't been for her sharp mind.

They went to clear problems at the western border of Underland. Whatever happened then, it had caused him to wake up in this strange world of which he knew nothing that Alice hadn't told him. To talk about this had brought back the memories anew and he felt very weak and fragile.

Slowly Tarrant set food after food, pace for pace he steered towards the bluish-white stairs, watched by the sorrowful eyes of Mallymkun.

Step by step he went upstairs. The window of the stairway was wide open and short, white-transparent drapes fluttered, because the wind had turned. Tarrant looked up to the window, weak evening light being the only thing illuminate the gloomy lower floor. However for the Hatter the light was very bright, bright as he saw it that morning.

--

The window was wide open, long white curtains fluttered in the wind. He found himself on the floor but he didn't feel cold. He didn't feel anything. Everything was in a daze, his head hurt, his eyes were sore although he was pretty sure he had slept a long time. He tried to stand up first, but he only fell over his own legs, which interestingly seemed thinner than before. Also he couldn't remember he owned such bleak trousers. However he also couldn't remember where he was and what strange house this was, so he supposed he wasn't to judge. With a bit of help by the bed in the middle of the room, he got up only to face the next surprise… or horror to be concrete. When he saw into the mirror he saw a tall man of approximately 6'1 height, which he was pretty sure wasn't his usual height. He saw a young man with a slender face, straight nose and a mop of boring brown hair, clothed in a bleak suit.

"Hey!" he said, testing to call for the other person, you never could trust those silly mirrors.

Yet he received no answer, admittedly he saw the mouth moving and the hand raising. He raised the hand again and made some wild gestures. Then his brows frowned and his whole face sank sadly.

So, it seemed, this was really him.

Yet if this was him, who was he? He couldn't remember knowing anyone of this appearance, however he couldn't remember how he had come here and he couldn't remember this house, so who was he to judge?

Something wasn't quite alright, through, he didn't know what it was. He got up and looked out of the window to see where he was. When he did he saw a row of big houses outside, a broad street, some greens, and a lot more houses behind that. His heart began to race. Something –really- wasn't quite alright. He felt a shiver run down his spine, his fingers first clutched the window sill, then let go and started shaking. His whole body started to rock when it hit him like a wave.

He screamed and it was pretty loud. A wonder no one had heard it. He screamed again when flashes of pictures flooded his mind:

A Marchhare. A carriage. A white court. A lovely blonde lady. A river full of heads. Falling into a deep well. A bloody Queen. A dark person in front of a blue sky. A benevolent Queen. A small, white child with dark eyes. A little hut in the woods. A big mansion. A red sofa. White garden furniture. A Bandersnatch. A cat licking his hands. An Alice. A lovely blonde lady. A burning hand to his chest. Striking swords with the Knave of Hearts. Agony.

"Who am I? WHO AM I?" he called without answer. When the pain started to fade away he found himself once again on the floor. "Who am I?" he whispered, stopping to shake. The Marchhare. The white court. Mallymkun. The fight. Alice. He remembered. He remembered being that Hatter, the Mad Hatter. How was his name? He thought of a big hat. A lovely, wonderful hat. _MY hat_, he thought. Chessur had always wanted to lay his claws on it. He was Tarrant Hightopp. Hatter of the White Queen, friend of Mallymkun and Alice, the champion.

He needed to get up and get a hold of himself. He needed his hat. Where was it?

He walked through the room and the upper story, but there was nothing to find. Something of the house was strangely familiar but at the same time not. It took him a wile to search everything, but there was no one to find. He called out for his friend and desperately hoped for Chessur to show up and tell him how it was a joke to cheer him up (and get the hat). But he wasn't only not to be seen; he really seemed to not be there at all. Nobody was there. He was all alone, no matter how often and how loudly he called.

Shortly before falling into a severe depression, Tarrant realized there were stairs left which lead to the lower story. He took them and found himself in another very white and boring story. At least he could get out of here, wherever 'here' was. He was stopped by sound, through, a sound from the kitchen. Someone was sobbing.

The Hatter went to look after it but first he saw nothing, but the sobbing grew louder and more intensive. He looked down and found a maid sitting in a corner; at least he thought this was how a maid looked. She had wrapped her arms around her knees and cried dearly, it broke his heart if he had one.

Tarrant kneed beside her, he heard her quietly saying: No, no, this isn't me… that sounded kind of familiar, so he asked her what she cried about.

The maid looked at him like a ghost and backed against the wall "Who are you? WHO ARE YOU?!" she asked upset and her eyes couldn't decide too look more desperate, frightened or ready to attack.

"I'm not sure who I am," he said, "But as far as I know I'm Tarrant Hightopp, hatter of the White Queen."

"You?!" she exclaimed, "YOU are not Tarrant Hightopp, I know that Hatter, he is my best friend and…" she looked into his eyes "You ARE Tarrant, aren't you? Oh what have they done to us! Look at you! Look at me!" she raised her hands and when she saw them again she sobbed deeply, those were not her hands, her hands were small, cute and furry. "What have they done!"

"They?" he asked, "Do you know who did this?"

Mallymkun came to a halt and looked even more sad "… no. I don't know who did this."

"And…" he looked at her confused, "What did they exactly do to you?"

She stared at him with her mouth agape "I'M A DAMN DORMOUSE!"

He tilted his head "You look like a nice maid to me."

"THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" she screamed, "I'm look like a human but I am a dormouse! A beautiful dormouse!"

"You are a dormouse," he repeated sounding not convinced.

The dormouse took him by the collar of his suit and shook him: "What is wrong with you? Of course I am a dormouse and you know that we have been together for years as Hatter and Dormouse!"

He blinked a few times "Oh, right," he said "I think I remember that."

Mallymkun drew a deep, deep breath to avoid exploding and let him go. "What else do you remember?" she asked rather snippy but she received a full status report. Both shared what they remembered, however all they found were very old, fond memories and how they found themselves in this house. The time between was completely erased. Everything that was left for them was acquaint themselves with the current situation, try to make the best of it and –end- it as soon as possible.

Day later they manage to leave the house and walk through the streets, yet only a week later they heard that Alice Kingsley, the headwoman of a daring trading company overseas, would leave the town. Both had a flash of new memories and something in them told them strongly that they had to contact her- not that the Hatter wouldn't have done exactly that anyway.

But when they found out where she was, they came too late. Just in the moment they arrived the haven, they saw her ship already driving outside of it. Tarrant called for her, shook his hands, threw a newly made cylinder but it was of no use and the hats here didn't fly quite as well as in Underland.

--

The Hatter blinked and asked himself how long he stood on these stairs, all the light had gone, it was dark outside. He quickly climbed up and shut the window before aiming for his bedroom; there he laid down on his bad, eying the ceiling.

Mallymkun and he, they had a hard time the past year, through it could have been worse, he supposed. Somehow they always found money in a chest above the fireplace. Somehow the vegetables in the garden grew exceptionally well. Somehow no one was suspicious no matter how strange they acted in this new world with new rules.

They had tried to find out more, with little success, and tried to go home, yet they came to the conclusion that it was of no use with no Alice. Luckily Mallymkun got the news that Alice would be back in a year and a half, so they had still chance even through it would be difficult to live in this 'London' town. Difficult it was.

Tarrant looked out of the window; there were no curtains anymore, as there were none left in the house. When he had a kind of breakdown and couldn't even remember who he was when Mallymkun told him, when he wouldn't believe her and insist that what she told him about Underland made 'no sense', she had taken the curtains, some needles and scissor and brought it to him.

At first he was confused because he had even forgotten what did best and liked most. Through when his hands patted the textile, his hands automatically grabbed the scissors and did what was right and –felt- so right. Like a worker bee he got some wire and started making a hat. That way, over time, he had turned all curtains into hats nobody would ever wear, but it calmed him a lot.

Somehow, something was working against them. He just knew it, and somehow he felt that they were not alone. Sometimes he really felt someone was watching them. Something put doubt into them, a thing called Reason that made them doubt themselves, it even attacked Mallymkun!

Poor, old Mallymkun was always sure who she was, he seemed to not be irritated by her surroundings or by Reason, but that day she had run nervously and alarmed through the building and was looking for her tail, until she decided that there was no tail and that she went quite mad.

He couldn't recognize her then, it was an image full of hurting and he couldn't do anything else than hug her and tell her the only truth he knew: That they both were quite mad and that this was exactly the right way to be.

This evening, for the first time, he felt right and had no doubts. Reason had finally shut up, he was free and in his freedom he had only thoughts for Alice. She would come. She had to come. She would.

They would go back with her, find out who was responsible for this and beat the living Terribounty out of him!

The hatter smirked with an orange tint to his eyes, this night he slept excellently.

-

TBC

* * *

**A/N** I hope you enjoyed this chapter. With the next one, our journey will finally begin and we will come a bit more near to the truth about the recent happenings to our favorite characters.

In case someone asks what the Outlandish words are (they are made up, I didn't find them in any Caroll-themed dictionaries):

Quiddleditch- a kind of grain that swells when it comes into contact with water, it becomes glue-like and slimy, also a lot heavier, therefore a sac of Quiddleditch could neither support itself standing, nor would it be easy to lift.

Terribounty- a place full of terrible woe, pain and hell, semantically similar to "hell".


	7. With a Knock

**With a Knock**

In the morning, Tarrant had just slept a few hours; he went and got together what they possibly needed. It wasn't much, as they had arrived without much on them. One could never now, through, what leered back in Underland. Something had brought them here and played them in an evil way, so it possibility of something evil waiting for them wasn't too low.

He caressed the still enshrouded blade of a skene* he had secured in a way he didn't intend to talk about before he hid it under his pants beneath the shin. Mallymkun was already ready; she got rid of all unnecessary parts of her clothing and was quite happy to have more mobility. She really felt better and more herself again, yet she still held the broomstick which's bristle she had kicked off with a lot of joy. It made her more comfortable, as a sword was hard to obtain.

Tensed they stood in the kitchen, watching each other, watching out of the window, waiting. While Mallymkun checked again and again the direction they had to walk, it didn't escape her sharp eyes how the Hatter grew more and more stressed. He really wanted to believe in Alice, but he had done once and got burned.

A knock.

Mallymkun wanted to turn to the Hatter, but he was already gone.

The door opened in front of Alice, who tilted her head when she saw the lean man in front of her. Somehow he looked different from before, his expression had changed, was very serious and she didn't know that side of the Hatter well.

"See? I'm here, as promised."

Tarrant smiled and led her in "You are."

"Where do we go now?" she asked while the Hatter fiddled with her fingers to take the suitcase. Something in her fingertips tingled and she felt almost like blushing, before asking him stupidly what he was doing there, she let go and decided this was the best way to do it, as the Hatter seemed calmly satisfied now, knowing she wouldn't die from exhaustion of carrying a very small and light suitcase.

"Follow me," he said and led her to the backdoor, which was open to the garden. Mallymkun was waiting there.

"So we are really going…" Alice said quietly, more to herself than to the others.

Hatter watched her suspiciously and worried at the same time, bit his lip, frowned and when they reached the door he said in a smoky voice, which derived from his dry throat: "If you don't want to go, this is your chance. I won't pressure you this time."

"I appreciate that," she responded calmly "But I already made my decision. I'll come with you, you didn't pressure me." She looked up to him "I know you never would've forced me to go. Yet I feel responsible for what happened to you and I want to help you find out who caused this. I want to find out if Wonderland is in danger and if it is…" the strength that Tarrant had always described as 'muchness' came back to her eyes "I will fight for it's welfare as I did before. This is my big task, isn't it?"

"Your main task is coming back," the Hatter said evasively, "Everything else, we will see when we are there. It could be dangerous Alice," just in this moment, the moment one would have least expected it, the confident expression crumbled and a more worried and anxious one took over.

"I trust you. I know I can count on you however dangerous it may become, I could count on you during the fight with the Jabberwocky which was one of the darkest hours of Wonderland. I could count on you now." She lay one hand on Tarrants arm "I'm sorry for my reaction from before. Hatter, I am –very- happy that you came, no matter what the circumstances are." He had taken her out of confusing and heart breaking misery; he had proven she wasn't crazy. She saw a light at the horizon and she was sure whatever there would come, they could find out what happened and take care of it never going wrong again. She didn't know what would happen afterwards yet she also didn't want to think about it now.

The Hatter smiled upon this confession and Mallymkun pointed towards the garden "I don't want to interrupt your extensive conversation but… are actually going somewhere today?!"

They moved out and she closed the door "Besides that, I would of course defend you whatever dangers there are."

"Thank you, Mallymkun," said Alice with a smile and the dormouse accepted it with a brusque posture but slightly pink cheeks.

"We really have to go now," she said and went ahead, they followed her to the farthest edge of the garden.

"You really think it's here?" Alice asked and regretted the question right the next moment when Mallymkuns nose began to twitch nervously, but she didn't answer but pointed to an old tree which had developed huge aerial roots.

"It… looks somehow familiar," admitted Alice, it remembered her of the tree she woke up at the Ascot estate.

"It is the only chance we have," Mallymkun said, "The whole time it was directly in front of our eyes but I only found it when you came back in town. Somehow it has to be connected with you; we couldn't use it without you.

"Then how do we go in?" Alice tilted her had but aside from the familiarity to the other hole it looked perfectly normal, nothing strange about it.

"I thought you could tell us," the Hatter interfered, "You always told us about Otherland and how you came to Underland, you are the most experienced in these things."

The young woman made a face "It is not exactly a science…" she thought about it: "Can you get in?" She asked Mallymkun who was the smallest of the lot.

The maid tried to jump in – her feet now stood exactly between two big roots but she was still there and it didn't seem as if the hole was deep enough.

"You're sure it was here?"

"Of course I am!" the dormouse snapped at Tarrant, now HE doubted her again, she was really fed up with all this, it didn't help her mood. As a dormouse she always had to proof her worth and talents, she didn't want to be queried by Tarrant of all persons. He had never doubted her before they came here, ever. She stepped out of the whole when Alice came near.

The other woman knelt down and put a hand into the hole. The hand went in far deeper than Mallymkun had stood before. Obviously they were right; it really was connected with her!

She stood up again and extended her arms "Hold on, I will try something."

Tarrant and Mallymkun both took the hand on their side: "What are you going to…" the Hatter wanted to ask, but Alice had already closed her eyes and jumped.

Everything around them turned black, smoky and they felt like falling. They lost each other due to several pieces of furniture they rammed against and caught several bruises. They fell deeper and deeper; the room around them became brighter. Alice remembered this 'fantastic' (painful) way of travelling but suddenly they were engulfed by a thick cloud of dust.

With a loud sound of THUMP! She found herself on a dusty way among two overgrown meadow. With a light shriek Mallymkun landed somewhere near her and with a louder, deeper scream the Hatter followed and fell into the high grass on the right side, the suitcase followed at once and according to the painful "UGH!" sound coming from her right, it landed right on him…

While Mallymkun got up with no problems, Alice went to help the Hatter. She had to look for him because the grass was high and thick, but found him eventually. She helped him up, he stroke the dust from his clothing and with a rather het up expression he went back with her.

Mallymkun stood on the path, broomstick in hand and pressed at the ground, her head lowered depressively. Alice heart ached, she approached her "What is it, Mallymkun?" She could've sworn there was a sob, but the dormouse didn't look up and if it was indeed a sob, she wouldn't.

"Why do I still look this way?" she whispered with a broken voice "We are back in Underland, aren't we? I should be a dormouse again, right now."

Alice lay a hand on her shoulder, took a look at the Hatter – he was still unchanged from before, still wearing 'the wrong skin' like he had called it. He looked downright miserable, possibly not only over his own missing retransformation, but out of compassion.

He, at least, was still human. Mallymkun in the opposite was in a body not even similar to her own.

It took a moment till she was ready to go on and silently, a bit disgusted by herself, took the handkerchief Alice offered her.

"We should head back to the Queens court," she said, still sounding a bit puffy, "If something happened while we were away, the twines will knot together there." She looked around and wrapped her arms around herself "Everything looks so different now, but I think we should take this path."

No one could disagree with her reasoning, Alice approached Tarrant: "Hatter, do you know the way."

"Yes, I do," he said, still worried about his friend, then taking a look on the landscape "She is right, we take this path to the red fields over there, then there should be a crossway."

They started walking and Alice took a look around. The sky was dark blue, white pollen flew through the air, accompanied by the usual weird insects and flying rocking horses. The farther they went the more flowers appeared in the fields to both sides, however there were none of the big speaking flowers among them. Alice felt awkward; usually the flowers were the first Wonderland inhabitants she met.

"This is strange," she started.

"Why?" the Hatter asked, "I think it is a quite wonderful night and we haven't been attacked yet, to be honest, everything looks very calm around here."

"But it never was that way…" she said.

"How can I tell? You are the expert on this."

"Usually we should have fallen in a small room with many doors…" she said "I've never before fallen directly into Wonderland," she looked up "And wasn't it morning just a few moments ago?"

"Morning? I don't know, wasn't it dark?"

"The sun had already risen...."

Alice felt a shiver running down her back, but this time it wasn't a good one. It was upsetting her; the Hatter couldn't remember the time they just left London? And from the look of Mallymkun she had a hard time remembering as well.

This wasn't a good sign, not a good at all.

--

The little flying rocking horse just zapped away before it could be hit by those giant people suddenly walking in the way. How annoying they were! It had to fly a big loop now to get to its destination. Horrible, horrible giants! All that time it had felt free to fly wherever it wanted and suddenly they walked by and hindered it! What impertinence!

After the little rocking horse calmed down from its encounter with near-death it continued its way to lick some honey-milk from its favorite plant. It had to be fast; everyone loved the honey-milk from that plant! If it didn't hurry there would be nothing left for it and that would be a pity.

Suddenly it nickered, had it heard some talk about a hatter? Wasn't he approached with a hatter as its name? Was it that Mad Hatter everyone was looking for at every corner of the kingdom?

The small thing was just a stupid little flying rocking horse, but as the benevolent Queen Mirana loved every living being, including planting big, flowery meadows where once only battlefields lay, the small flying rocking horse felt a deep sense of responsibility out of gratitude.

It snuffled, took a deep breath as well as all the strength it had to power it four wings, then it buzzed with the fasted speed possible through the fields.

The delicious plant was forgotten, or at least cast aside, should the others have it – it had a mission.

The mission was to tell all its little friends about the news, who would tell it to all their friends until the message reached the castle. Then the little flying rocking horse would have **done a deed** for the kingdom and maybe it would cause the benevolent Queen to plant more of these delicious flowers.

TBC

* * *

*A skene is a kind of broad, short dagger which is a traditional Scottish weapon; the skene dhu is the kind of dagger that is traditionally worn in the stockings of kilt wearers. It's also written "skean" but I've found that skene is the Scottish spelling.

**A/N** I'm happy this fic got so many story alerts, it makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

If you spot something that you think is awkward or not understandable, feel free to point it out!

I've corrected some of the earlier chapters, during that I've realized that I spelled Alice last name wrong; it's Kingsleigh, not Kingsley. I have corrected it now in all chapters except the last one, which will be corrected tomorrow.

Now our three heroes are back in Underland, but the problems aren't solved yet, especially Alice realized that there are possibly even more to come. We will find out more tomorrow!


	8. Lonely in a Crowd

**Lonely in a Crowd**

While the trio walked down the path, the news the little flying rocking horse had told everyone it knew spread through the kingdom. It pervaded through the meadows, through the fields. It reached the talking flowers and with them it reached everyone in the kingdom, alas the kingdom was vast.

The Hatter lead the way for the women beside him, they all felt a kind of uneasiness in the atmosphere. No matter how long they walked, it never seemed to be time for the sunrise. Was Alice mistaken after all? No, her friends couldn't even remember that it had been morning when they left, yet this kind of eternal night was just as wrong. This time she wasn't the only one feeling it, the Hatter had started to fiddle with the hemline of his suit in an agitated way, while Mallymkun grabbed her broomstick that hard her fingernails left marks in the soft wood.

Alice tried to find out what was wrong aside from the eternal night. She watched their environment closely, trying not to miss anything. But there was nothing to miss. Sometimes one doesn't see the wood for the trees: There was nothing!

For all the way they had walked, they hadn't seen a single inhabitant of Underland, not counting the few animals that really couldn't speak the human language.

This insight frightened the young Ms. Kingsleigh, what could have happened? Was there a war or were those people and creatures captured again by some evil force? What if the Red Queen had come back?

In the moment she wanted to speak to the Hatter, he took the word – alarmed by her scared expression: "It can't be," he said. "I know that the Bloody Queen had been still in exile when I… left to go somewhere. To my knowledge she is well guarded for both sides."

"Both sides?"

"Well, I suppose there have been some assassination attempts." He himself had been tempted to act in one, through his loyalty to the White Queen, who had dearly whished her sister to live, had prevented that.

"Stayne?"

"Fled in the opposite direction," Mallymkun explained. "He tried to strangle the Bloody Big Head but didn't' succeed, sadly. When they had to separate them, he took the opportunity to flee but we hadn't heard of him for years."

"So it could be him," concluded Alice. Her friends looked at each other not convinced.

"I… don't feel it is him," the Hatter murmured. "I think it's something… more dangerous."

Alice didn't know what to make of that. She didn't like how it sounded, something more dangerous… what could it be? Yet she trusted these 'feelings' of Hatter and Mallymkun, they were right till now, after all. Also, it wasn't to forget that although she had been to Wonderland a few times, she didn't knew everything about it and God knows what she had forgotten already.

At some point they had to rest and the Hatter promised to find something to eat. Alice and Mallymkun stayed behind with the suitcase, sat around a fire the dormouse had made so swiftly, supposedly she could even have done it in her sleep. Alice had pulled her legs near and wrapped her arms around them, thinking over the events of the past two days. Mallymkun watched her, her expressions changed hardly noticeable between grumpy, sad, worried and a bit sulking. Alice broke the silence by asking a question she was now unbelievably interested in:

"What happened in Underland while I was away?"

Mallymkun looked up "I'm not sure what I can tell you," she said, "How could we expect to stay with us? You were the champion; you slew the Jabberwocky and did your deed. Nothing held you back and so you vanished. I suppose most of us were still happy, for the bright days lay ahead of us. The White Queen was benevolent as ever and tried to easy the suffering the Bloody Bighead had brought over Underland. It was a long task, through, which probably isn't solved yet. She has still a lot work to do. Everyone tried to restore the forests and fields so that there would be enough food and enough places to hide for everyone. Every inhabitant of wonderland helped everyone and things became better fast. However," her gaze fell on the direction Tarrant had vanished in, "Not for everyone. –Some- people felt left out or not fitting in, for they felt they had no purpose anymore, through that may be wrong.

-Some- people needed to be strongly occupied to even function but for –some- people that still wasn't enough."

Through Alice understood whom she was talking about, she didn't get what the dormouse meant, but assumed from her posture that she wouldn't tell her more. She was a bit annoyed about this but on the other side she could feel that the already suffering Mallymkun didn't like to think about the suffering of her friend.

A short while later the Hatter came back with some greens in his arms, Alice had never seen something like this, the long plants looked like a mixture of corn and reed. "What is this?" she asked.

"It's Velogra," he explained with a shy smile as he sat down.

Mallymkuns eyes beamed with joy, she set to jump up, crawl over the Hatters sleeve to his shoulder to get a better look, but in the last possible moment she realized that wasn't possible right now and stood put, her smile disappearing for a short moment, then it came back in a more timid manner.

"You can roast it over the fire," she explained, "it tastes great!"

The Hatter had found a lot of it growing a few yards away, obviously it wasn't harvested in quite a while and he supposed that this was contrary to a good sign.

So they sat together and roasted the Velogra, Alice decided that it tasted like sweet bread; very crispy sweet bread. Somehow it appeared like the Hatter and Mallymkun had sat together like that quite often, that accustomed they looked.

With the passing evening, or what she assumed was evening, she took notice of the Hatter looking over to her for several times in an awkward manner, never saying anything and looking away – mostly at his feet or hands – when he noticed that she noticed. She didn't know what to make of that, either.

In the following two days they concentrated on walking, not talking. Alice had always wanted to be left for herself and not steadily annoyed with parties and pointless conversations, however now she missed them somehow and was disturbed by the silence. Mallymkun and the Hatter seemed to understand each other without words, just with looks. She questioned herself if she would ever reach that level of understanding.

The nearer they came to the White Queens castle, the more people and talking creatures they met. It seemed that everyone had gathered in the vicinity of the castle, not just for the beauty of it – the circumstances some seemed to be living in were not called the best. Alice was sure some of them could had made a better living farther outside, were they came from. Also, everyone seemed so suspicious and afraid. Most didn't know her in sight and of course nobody recognized the Mad Hatter or Mallymkun. A few knew what the champion looked like, recognized Alice and told others who she was. Some invited them over to eat something, invitations they gladly accepted. However when Alice tried to explain who she was and what she was doing her the Hatter gesticulated that she mustn't tell who –they- were, wasn't that strange? But maybe they were just ashamed of their situation, she couldn't take that amiss, this was Wonderland and they probably stood out as much as a Dodo with glasses and jacket would in London.

When they finally arrived at the castle it was crowded. Uncountable examples for typical Underland population ran, lay, slept and chattered everywhere, not only among the floor, the benches and at the margin of wells – also IN the wells, on walls, on the roofs.

They announced themselves to the white guard which looked like chess pieces. Only a short time later they were announced to the court:

Queen Mirana, beautiful as ever, sat on her throne and had a scroll read to her by some black and white clad minister. The court ladies had gathered behind and at the stairs beneath her, because the audience hall was also pretty full of people. Everyone chattered, it was very noisy, Alice felt as if her ears were pierced through and companions didn't seem to cope much better. The Hatter, with his ever lacking sense of discretion, covered his ears. When the nomenclator announced "The Hatter, the Dormouse and the Champion, Lady Alice!" the crowed immediately went a bit more quiet– yet not quiet enough.

The Queen stood up with a joyous expression, elegantly lifting her hands and making a tender step forward to beckon to them. "Hatter! I was looking for you all over, and now you come back and bring my champion with you, what a glorious idea!"

The nearer they came, the more the lovely, joyous expression of Queen Miranas face seemed to melt and then stick every yard they took, until they came to knee down before the stairs to her throne.

"Hatter?" the Queen exclaimed restrained and hissed not quite lovely: "Where have you been? What happened to you?"

The court ladies couldn't decide to either turn away with some distance like they ought to, or to stay were they were to hear more of this interesting development. This was the Hatter? He looked so different, and as the Hatter was rarely without his dormouse the girl must be… no, it couldn't be, absolutely impossible!

Meanwhile Alice witnessed an interesting development herself: The moment the White Queen had recognized the Hatter and spoken his name, his hair had become red again, through not all curly as usually, but more intractable. Also, Mallymkun definitely shrunk a bit.

The Hatter looked up ashamed "I… I honestly don't know, Your Majesty," he explained barely hearable over the noise.

The Queen hissed again, very quietly this time, to herself. She spread her arms for attention "Everyone leaves the room! I want to speak in privacy!"

The nomenclator took the word by stomping his pike forcefully on the marble ground: "The Queen wants privacy! Leave the audience hall this instant! Everyone who will not follow this order will be removed by force!"

A minor panic broke loose and all those people run for the doors to crowd other rooms even more, the court ladies and rakes departed a little more elegantly.

When everyone had left, the Queen took the steps down to the Hatter and laid her hands around his face "How could this even happen?" she asked, then turned to Mallymkun "I can't believe this!" she said astonished. The Queen almost shook her head "Wherever have you been? I had you searched for everywhere and you were gone a terribly long time. Nothing was left of you two and when the hat was found, I almost thought you were dead!"

He looked up with eyes like rays of sunshine "My hat was found?"

He disrupted Miranas alarm when he asked this, but of course, this was the Mad Hatter, for him the hat was more important than almost anything, he seemed to have some very important memories connected with it. "Yes," she said and her eyes shortly pointed to the left upper direction.

The Hatter and Alice moved their heads to see what could be there and only found a pedestal somewhere above the middle of the wall. Suddenly they saw the big, scorched hat move itself along the pedestal, a bit into their direction.

"Awwwwww…." they heard a long, yawning sound and the hat popped up into mid air, together with two eyes, "I had hoped you wouldn't come back, because then this … wonderful… big… hat would've been mine." A grin appeared, then followed the head and then the body of the grinning cat who must have been there the whole time. He lay on his back but then moved casually around to look at them "This dares to become far too political for my tastes, anyway, and I'm not a bad cat," he said, took the hat on one paw and looked at it regretting "Goodbye you beautiful hat, maybe next time", he sighed and threw the hat down into the audience hall.

The hat-flying-qualities were much better in Underland, that way the hat landed directly in front of the Hatter, who had observed the scene between Chessur and his head quite disapprovingly and almost jealous. He yanked the hat into his arms and almost hugged it, his expression a bit sulking. The Cheshire Cat had in the meanwhile vanished partly, then completely, seemingly walking away on the pedestal. However knowing that cat, Alice was sure he wouldn't stay far away.

Miranas gaze lay upon the Hatter again, who stroke over the hem of his head gently.

"**We were in Otherland**," he said, finally answering the Queens question.

Mirana gasped.

* * *

TBC

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry there was no update yesterday, I was very busy with Easter. As compensation this chapter is a little bit longer and I feel well inspired for the next one. I hope you all enjoy reading this, as usual:

Read and Review, just share some thoughts ^_^


	9. Forsaken Salvation

**Forsaken**** Salvation**

„In Otherland?" the Queen repeated, „But this is hardly possible?"

"We… don't know yet, my Queen," the Hatter replied slowly and hesitantly. As there would be not much of an answer from him, the White Queen stepped past him to Alice. She had noticed the distressed look on the face of the blonde girl.  
"Does this mean I can't go back?" she asked.

Queen Mirana took Alice's hands and squeezed them, tenderly as usual: "No, of course not. You come from there. But you have to understand, it is very difficult for an Underlander to go there, the bigger he is, the more of the potion will be needed. This is the reason why we always sent McTwisp, as he is very small, but big enough to not …" she made a face like almost throwing up, lifting a gloved hand in front of her mouth, "be eaten." She looked Alice deep into the eyes "Alice, I'm very happy to welcome you back here. You are in direly needed."

Alice knew that it wouldn't be easy when she decided to come back, but actually here, she remembered, that she really hadn't the necessary qualities of a warrior. The Vorpal Sword she once used was reserved for slaying Jabberwockies, as the Queen had told her six years ago, it would loose its power if used against something else. How should she swing a weapon without knowledge or help by magic?

The Hatter had listened carefully but inwardly troubled. Why had Alice even asked? She was hardly here and wanted to leave again? When he finally met her at the garden party, she hadn't appeared to be very happy. Whatever held her up there? Could Underland ever be a concurrence? Of course, for the Hatter Underland was the best country to live in, as it was his home and although horrible things had happened, he thought of it as ideal. He couldn't imagine Otherland before, but now he could compare, yet found nothing speaking for it in favor.

The Queen walked back to the stairs and just sat down there, although that didn't beseem for a Queen, usually. "So you were in Otherland but don't know why, and you have changed significantly and…" she looked compassionately at Mallymkun "probably involuntarily and don't know why, either."

The two Underlanders nodded in agreement. The Queen looked up with Alice "And what happened to you?"

Alice shrug her shoulders "I don't know much more, I was in another country for years, some days after I came back, the Hatter found me and asked me over. He looked different then, his eyes were smaller and the hair brown, but when we talked his eyes became normal again. It's similar with Mallymkun, she shrunk since then. It was quite a shock to see them both in this condition, but it seemed like the only solution was to come back here together. I had hoped you had more information."

When the Queen listened to her, her dark eyes started gleaming from inside and one brow grew into a delicate frown, just for a second.

"Maybe it would help if we knew what happened before they arrived in Lo… Otherland."

"Yes," the Hatter added "This is a good idea."

Alice looked at him with soft eyes "What is the last thing you can remember?"

"I…" he started, having a definite image before his mental eye, but when he wanted to speak it, it seemed to drift away –the same way was it with all the images he tried to think of, until he finally found one that didn't slip away. He put his mental hands firmly around it, so that it wouldn't disappear, and remembered the castle from the outside, the garden and the nearby woods.

"I… remember that there was trouble in the west," he said, then twitched nervously, his throat feeling dry like a desert he croaked "And there was fire!" Bad images appeared in front of his eyes, the burnt ground, Stayne, the Jabberwocky burning his clan to death.

"It was a fire pillar!" Mallymkun added "It was far away but reaching the sky, it was already dark, so everyone could see it..."

The Queen nodded while listening, then shut her eyes for a moment "I remember the night you speak of, however it was four days before you departed to investigate the matter."

Alice stopped breathing for a moment; Hatter and Mallymkun were investigating a 'matter'?

The Queen had several loyal knights and vassals, why ever should she send a simple Hatter, who had the reputation to be very mad (although she didn't think he was that mad. Just bonkers. Like all the best people are).

"The pillar burned for two days when we had gathered everyone to look into it, I trusted you to take care of yourselves, like you always did.

However when my knights returned empty handed and all that was left was your hat, I feared for the worst. I had the direction searched that you were told to go, but there wasn't a single sign you ever went there."

The Hatters eyes blinked "But… I remember the woods," he said, Mallymkuns and Alice's head turned around in a surprised manner.

"I am sure," he said, "That wasn't the forest we had lived in, it was another, the western one. The trees are much redder there and broader and the crowns are still green and big and there are more ferns and…"

"Hatter!" shouted Alice and Mallymkun in unison.

"I am fine," he croaked, trying to loosen a bowtie that wasn't there.

"This is a very mysterious matter and I see no other solution than to investigate the situation near the west border anew," the Queen said, "Now that our champion is here, I'm sure things will turn to the better."

She made an uncomfortably, for rarely seen, serious face: "They ought to. The situation in the past year has worsened," she said quietly, although there was nobody left in the hall but them.

"Wraiths have invaded the border regions and strange things happen under the earth, it often shakes or suddenly melts with fires coming from below, often accompanied with more sightings of wraiths. It can only be connected with that event at the west border, because every time a team was sent there, the aggressions stopped for a short bit, through no long. We have to find out what happens there and who attacks our beautiful country, otherwise it will be an empty country, for all the Underlanders are here."

She was a benevolent Queen, of course she had granted the refugee sanctuary, but if she was quite honest the noise drove her out of her mind.

None of the three in front of her looked very comfortable with the new task, the underlandian ones because they felt insecure, Alice because she felt bad that they felt bad.

Queen Mirana sighed "Come with me," she said, "I think I can help." As Alice already knew, alchemy and magic was one of the hobbies of the White Queen and she seemed to be doing well with them. So they followed her out of the hall, where her guards were waiting. They escorted them to another part of the castle that was way more serene. They were led to a kind of big open kitchen that Alice remembered from her last visit, although it had changed a bit. What didn't change was who she found there, in a blue jacket hopped the Marchhare around. Exactly in that moment, he took notice of them "New Guests!" he exclaimed and threw a mug. Alice really didn't want to know the court expenses for mugs and cups if he had lived here for the past year, which was probably the case. However the Queen seemed to be fond of his cooking and had never reacted angrily, instead she had developed a similar evasion-reflex like the Hatter and Mallymkun had.

"Marchhare!" exclaimed the latter and run towards him, but the Marchhare didn't recognize her. He turned to the Hatter who just wanted to greet him, happy to see his old friends. However the Marchhare didn't recognize him, either. Instead he began to shake and jolt "Big girl!" he exclaimed "too much, strange people!!" he hopped around, leaving the dormouse behind, who felt even worse.

The Queen laid a hand on her shoulder for a moment, gently shoving her out of the way. "Alice, will you help me?" she ordered in her usual gentle voice and Alice came to her.

"What can I do?"

"We need two big copper pots," the Queen listed "Put them on the stove, yes, exactly that way, heat them up. You do this well!" The Queen walked around the big table and took some glasses and small barrels. "Ground two of these," she said and gave Alice two ear-shaped fungi, some dragonfly-shaped cobs and small, green peas that looked like eyes. Alice tried not to think too hard about the origin of these things and grounded as she was told.

While Mirana put some other things on the table, letting Alice pour water into the pots, she explained: "I think you were spellbound by the Gzum-Glamour. It is a spell that turns you into the exact opposite of what you want to be - Alice, not the bat-wings, they come later, take these dead man's fingers…"

Alice was unbelievably happy to see the corpse fingers again, just not really.

"I think it tells us something what you have become… maybe you should think about it," she smiled "It could help to solve this riddle. However," she poured a little bit of red liquid from a bottle into the pots, then shrugged and poured the rest in it, as well, "It is quite basic and I know how to turn it around. It is just a bit complicated, but we…" she gestured to Alice that she could put the bat-wings in, "we are well equipped."

When the bat-wings landed in the pots, there was a loud puff and some violet smoke steamed from the copper.

The only thing left in every pot was a tiny portion of a dark-red potion.

Alice had to put it into two mugs while it still steamed, but the steam soon turned green and the potion itself blue, then seemed to have cooled down.

"Drink this," the White Queen said to her two underlandian subjects, smiled and hoped for the best.

_Water, fingers, bat wings, Geezlebroth, Flabbynarth…_ she listed to herself. _That should be all, I don't think I forgot something this time_.

Both of them stepped near, not irritated the slightest by the strange receipt, both grabbed the mugs in anticipation of finally turning normal again, simultaneous they lifted the mugs to their moths and drank.

Mugs clattered to the ground, gross tasting liquid spilled on the floor. A squeaky voice screamed of joy.

Down in the clothes of a maid moved something and soon Mallymkun stepped out of a sleeve, with a makeshift cloth made from the bonnet. She beamed overly happy when she saw her tail again, embraced it and danced in a circle "I'm myself again!" she exclaimed "I'm a beautiful dormouse again! Oh thank you, my Queen. I would swear you all my greatest loyalty if you hadn't had it all the time."

Mirana smiled, but then she turned around to the direction Alice was staring.

It was the Hatter; he stared at the bleak table in shock. The mug was absolutely empty, still cramped into one hand, yet the Hatter hadn't changed a bit anymore.

"How is this possible?" he asked with a breaking voice **"Why didn't I turn back?"**

**--  
**

TBC

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**A/N:** Why you didn't turn back? Because it would be too easy, hun. There lays a bi~g journey in front of all of you.

I hope all of you readers enjoyed this chapter! ^_^

Many, many thanks for the reviews! I love you, thank you, thank you!

I'm always happy over reviews, so let them come, they are very motivating for me: RnR!


	10. The Show Must Go On

**The Show Must Go O****n…**

_It was the Hatter; he stared at the bleak table in shock. The mug was absolutely empty, still cramped into one hand, yet the Hatter hadn't changed a bit anymore._

"_How is this possible?" he asked with a breaking voice __**"Why didn't I turn back?"**_

Everyone looked at their feet in an affected manner. They all felt sorry for the Hatter and it overlaid the joy of Mallymkuns successful retransformation. Alice felt her heart ache again, he looked so sad, even this new, English clothing was adapting to his mood and looked sad.

The Hatter took a deep, depressing breath and looked at the Queen for help, for she was the one who knew about these magic things. In his big eyes, now reminding of an overgrown and quite poisoned puppy, sparkled a very dim shred of hope – maybe there was an explanation, a very easy explanations, maybe he needed more because he was taller or maybe it was a different ingredient necessary for males or… or… he didn't know. He felt the same cluelessness as when he first heard about a raven being like a writing desk, he didn't know why that was, either, but he hoped this time he would find an answer.

The mouth corners of the Queen dropped deep, making her look like a caricature of her own because of the dark lip stick, frustrated she sat down with the whooshing sound of her dress.

That this wasn't a good sign was all too obvious and Alice felt a clump form in her stomach, the Hatters mimic told her it was the same for him. Mallymkun climbed up the table to take part in the situation.

Mirana lay two fingers to her temple like she had a headache, stroke over her nose, front head, through her hair, then she displayed half a smile "There are some explanations…" she said, "I'm not sure a single one fits, but these are the ones I know of: First, maybe you want to be more like what you are now, then you know, this could hinder you turning back. Secondly, I can't turn back what already is turned back. At last, maybe the curse laid on you… is just too strong."

The words of the White Queen stirred up more questions than they answered and every one of the attending persons drew their own conclusions from it. The Queen was quite distressed about a curse that may be too strong to heal, as she had studied the healing arts for all her life. Mallymkun feared deeply that the Hatter might like the way he was now, as it was estranging and a bit offensive. They were all mad and she and the Hatter always had a special connection because of their unique way of madness, what if Tarrant didn't want to be mad anymore? Would they still be best friends then? She couldn't stand losing him. She always feared that the Alice was the only danger for her, but now possibly the matter himself was turning away…

Alice herself thought about the second answer, what could it possibly mean, not being able to turn back what is turned back? It sounded like one of the usual riddles of Wonderland, so it was probably more obvious than she thought, yet she couldn't wrap her thoughts around it.

The Hatter, at last, thought about all these possible explanations. He couldn't make up if one of them was the right one, none of them felt right so it either had to be none of them or something in between. Whatever it was, he couldn't change anything about it now, he had to accept it and move on.

With a sudden enthusiastic movement, he swept the boring cylinder from his head and his favorite hat, which he held in his hands until now, was placed proudly and not less determined on his head.

"What now?" he asked the Queen, who had calmed herself and rested her back against the wall:

"As I said, it is of utmost importance to reinvestigate the west border. As whatever events happened only affected Mallymkun and you, and as my White Knights have come back without any clues yet, it will be the best to take a group of White Knights with you. They will help you search the forest and take care of you at the same time." She looked that the Hatter intensively "I know you don't like that but I won't risk losing you again and maybe you can find out what happened and who is the source of this despicable curse."

She was right; he didn't like it at all. He was used to working alone, accepting no one else to help him than Mally, he just couldn't adjust well with the knights. Mallymkun always knew how he was and how to react to him, she could read him as well as he could read her, it was different. He wasn't a big team player. However he couldn't deny what the Queen said was reasonable and it wouldn't have helped anyway, because her tone left no room for protest, in this situation he knew how to shut up.

"What about me?" Alice asked, "I want to help," _I owe them to…_

"I'm sure you will be of great help," the Queen said assuring with soft eyes "You are my champion. You will go with them but while the plan is in work, I want you to take part in some training. You won't have the Vorpal Sword this time, as the Jabberwocky of this generation is slain, so you need to be able to handle yourself although your intellect will be the better weapon by far."

Alice agreed by lowering her head, although she didn't feel that great about the training in front of her. She barely remembered the great and powerful feeling that engulfed her when she had adjusted to the Vorpal Sword and slain the Jabberwocky in a quite professional manner. All that sudden knowledge was now lost to her and a blade was frightening again, something Victorian women hadn't anything to do with or even to think about. Yet it was surely a good idea. Whatever lurked in these woods out there at the ominous west border, it would be something very evil if it managed to turn her friends so miserable and steer fear in a whole country. They had to stop it, no matter what. With this thought Alice felt a new strength within herself; this would be the source she would drink from when it came to the fight that their exploration surely would end in.

"If all questions are answered or not answered now, I suggest we dismiss this meeting now," the White Queen stood up. "As much as I enjoy your company and feel compassion to your situation I have enough important business to do. I will have you all lead to quarters, and If you want to visit your home," she turned to the Hatter "do so in the next days but don't forget to take part in the plans for the coming exploration to the west. Everything should be as it was." She had the Mad Hatters house guarded in case he showed up. Before heading to the door she looked at him intensively "Don't even think about going out there alone, we know how it ended now, who knows how much worse it could become." With alone, of course, she meant without her knights. It wasn't only a thing about control; it was also that she felt remorse about not being there for her loyal subordinate and being left out in the blue about his situation.

Then she sent two servants from the hall to them to lead them to the quarters they could use.

Walking down the halls, the trio was very quiet, lonely in their own thoughts. As Alice had already thought many thoughts before and she was always a quick mind, she was ready at first and observing the face of the Hatter, that grew more and more dark, she took his hand it squeezed it gently. Suddenly his face looked lighter again and he blinked at her surprised, looking at their joined hands, back at her and at the hands again. "Thank you…" he whispered and squeezed back with caution.

"We would lead Lady Alice this way," one of the servants said mildly, Alice and Tarrant had to separate into different corridors.

"I want to visit my house," the Hatter said, Mallymkun jumping up his arm and climbing to his shoulder "You'll meet me tomorrow at the front fountain?"

"Of course, I will," replied Alice with a smile and the dormouse couldn't bring up any protest from inside her.

"Please sleep well, we will find out what happened to you and we will make everything alright again."

"I know," said the Hatter, "It's your dream and all. Goodnight, Alice."

Alice smiled "Goodnight, Hatter. Goodnight Mallymkun," she greeted and turned away with the servant, her smile becoming wry, she didn't think it was a dream for a long time now, she came to this realization during her last visit here, however she had never told him.

The Hatter on the other side wished he could think so optimistically about the matter, yet optimism was a rare good and he knew too well about the dark sides of this place, about that world and all.

Together with Mallymkun he got accustomed with the quarters for the night, though he wasn't very fond of spending the nights in the castle. However, when Mallymkun was already snoring away in another part of the quarters, he still lay awake and enjoyed the memory of Alice taking his hand and accepting the invitation for the next morning. He didn't know what she felt but he hoped it was similar to his feelings, yet he wasn't sure how to show them. He didn't want to scare her away, in no way, he had never met someone this accepting of him before, except for Mally – however she was a dormouse, no mater how much he liked her. Alice was different and special. For the Queen he would give his life, but for Alice and Mally, he would give his soul, if there was left something like that inside of him.

On the next morning, everything seemed to be a bit better. That was largely the fault of the beautiful

weather that greeted everyone with golden light, granting the White Castle some color in the shades of yellow, gold and red-orange. Alice walked through the leaves at the ground, listened to their rustle; somehow it seemed to her like Wonderland was in autumn, and although it was spring in the London she had left. Yet it gave life a nice, spicy flavor. The air was clear, warm and tasted great, big insects buzzed around; she even saw the one or the other flying rocking horse.

When she came near the fountain, Mallymkun and the Hatter already sat there, yet the Hatter had decided to take off the upper suit because of the warmth. He intended to get decent clothing once he was home, anyway. Alice observed a bit surprised that the Hatters arms, while slim and not bulky, yet seemed to have some muscles – as a swordfighter reasonably would have, but Alice didn't know much about these things. That he had strong shoulders, on one of those sat a dormouse right now, this she had found out several times before when she hugged him, but now the feeling made her a bit uneasy.

When the gaze of the Hatter fell upon her, he asked to himself why Alice's cheeks had turned red, but probably it was only the morning sun painting her just like everything here.

He eagerly stood up like a gentleman would and approached her "Good morning, Alice," he said.

"Good morning, Hatter," she replied and looked at his shoulder "Hello Mallymkun."

The dormouse lay more than she sat at the bend of his neck, half asleep; she yawned and opened heavily one of her big, dark eyes, acknowledging the greeting, before shutting it again.

"So, in which direction do we have to go?" Alice asked curious and quite eagerly to move.

Tarrant smiled "This way," he pointed out straight ahead, out of the castle to the near, dark green woods. "It isn't that far but I hope you haven't declined the breakfast." First, they wouldn't make it there that fast, but he also couldn't have offered her anything. Of course he couldn't, as he hadn't been there in a year to Alice's knowledge, however he was concerned that he didn't own much due to his life style and often being absent from home. First he went onto missions or lived in the castle making hats for everyone, then he went to the Marchhares house and felt comfortable there, having a tea party, yet he had one for several past years due to his struggle with time. After the big battle with the Bloody Big Head, he had gone on missions again, mostly, not being much at home after all. Still he stored his belongings there, he felt they belonged to the house as much as he, through It was small, remote and at the moment probably quite dusty.

Alice smiled and walked beside him out of the castle gate and soon into the woods. It was another part of the same forest she woke up in first and which had a part burned down by the Jabberwocky years ago. It was the same forest that once engulfed the old White Castle when it had still existed.

This forest gave a feeling of dark green, the trees were high and often conifers, only some smaller broadleaves here and there and many ferns at the ground-level. The old needles made the ways soft, through, walking here was nice and the sun breaking through the branches made it look even more nicely.

While Mallymkun doze, nobody spoke a word but this time the atmosphere was lighter and friendlier. From time to time, the Hatter and Alice shared a look at each other and both knew they felt better than before, just for accompanying each other and maybe because the morning was night and all.

A bit later the dormouse stretched herself and rub her eyes, yawning, "Oh, are we that far already? You surely seem to have got some new energy, walking at this speed."

He surely was walking faster, lighter, then before in his state of misery and lingering around like a pile of wet laundry. He also knew whose fault that was and maybe she knew it, too.

Alice just felt better because the Hatter seemed to feel better, she really didn't know his day-to-day behavior well enough, yet, to judge something like his walking speed. If Mallymkun noticed, it must've been obvious that the Hatter was better, probably because he was walking home. He surely looked forward to it, being in a home and feeling safe. She could understand it; she often thought of home, more often like 'home' was when she was younger. When her father still lived and her mother, however much of a party-girl, was still around. They were both dead now, leaving only Margaret to her – but her sister had suffered so much because of her, if she was honest to herself, she didn't want to bother her again, soon. Looking at it this way, she realized … there was not much of a home left for her. Not in London, not in Otherland.

"There it is," the Hatter stated contended, pointing out to a clearing with his chin. The red lit clearing with very high grass only showed a single house sitting in the middle of it. Alice really shouldn't have been surprised after witnessing the style the Marchhares house was built in, so she wasn't when she realized the house looked like a gigantic hat, not much different from the Hatters favorite. Sadly that also applied to the state of the building, as it was scorched a bit here and blackened a bit there.

Around the house, there stood four White Guards. The Hatter approached one of the guards and explained that he was back, everything was well and they could go home now. First, the guards were resenting this as they had their orders and the Hatter didn't carry an official order by their Queen.

On the other side, one of the guards was thinking that maybe he could really need a vacation, or some juice, or just visit the armor-polishing crew again… this thought intensified when he caught the orange coruscation in the Hatters eyes and the dark gnarl in his throat. The guards realized that they were no longer welcome and they knew better than to start a fight with the Mad Hatter.

Having this business finished, he came back to Alice, who already came near on from her side, shortening the way.

"We can go in now," he said and offered his hand "It would be a pleasure to introduce you to my house."

The Hatter was obviously in a sophisticated mood again, so Alice curtseyed slightly, took his hand and smiled adoringly "It would be a pleasure for me, Hatter, if you led me in."

The Hatter walked her to the door and opened it, the inside was lighted by the sun from the outside, so they could see a little.

Alice recognized a kitchen table standing in one non-edge of the round house, together with a bowl that once held water or something. There were also some old cupboards. On the other side there was a tailoring table and some things for making hats, although the majority of these things were deposited in the castle. The Hatter actually liked to make random hats if he wanted to relax, Alice didn't know that but she could easily imagine it. Behind the table were a big, red sofa and some old pillows, a dusty carpet and… not that much more. The house was not very full and it looked very, very old. She couldn't really believe the Hatter lived here, as he physically couldn't be much older than her, but the things here looked much older than some heritage from her grandmother.

"It is not much," he explained "but it is mine."

"I understand what you mean," Alice said, although the understanding came only slowly while thinking about the missing home she could go back to.

Mallymkun hopped own and one paw stroke over a cupboard, full of black dust "Ew!" she exclaimed, she seemed to not having disowned all the characteristics she involuntarily took on while being a maid.

"If you like, take a seat," the Hatter gestured to the red sofa, he walked towards it, stroke the dust from it and patted a pillow – not a good idea as there was a large dust-cloud making him cough. He turned to a window to open it, lucky to find the dark lever on it. "I'm sorry!" he coughed.

"It doesn't matter," Alice replied, slightly coughing and sat down on the a bit cleaned sofa out of courtesy. "It doesn't look like you are here too often, right?" she tilted her head, "So it must be something you came looking for here, what is it?"

Tarrant smiled "My wardrobe!" he opened the only big armoire and it showed neat, tidy and clean rows of perfectly sorted clothes. His heart grew over – finally decent clothes.

But first he made some hot water and brought Alice a tea in probably the only clean and unbroken cup of the house, before he hit the very small, almost not noticeable bathroom to dress himself.

A while after, they left the house and the Hatter wore the clothing suiting him best – an extravagant short cloak, his favorite head, all the small things that belonged to his outfit making it extraordinaire – suiting it to his personality – and of course the blue-green-black kilt of his family.

He felt way more secure now and way more he, Mallymkun had tears in her eyes, wiping them away with a grunt about the dust around here. Alice saw him bloom and she felt that this was more the Hatter she knew than before and when he turned around, he was definitely more pale than before, unnaturally pale, too pale to blame it on the now neutral light of the sun high above.

Even his clothing was beaming of joy and feeling right again!

"We should go back to the castle," Alice said "It is almost noon."

The Hatter nodded "Yes, and the Queen –ordered- to help the planning." Well, she was talking about attending the planning, but Tarrant Hightopp wasn't somebody following any orders, he choose very carefully whose orders he cared for. "Then let's go."

"Ahem," a squeaky voice came from beneath, Mallymkun looked up at him with her big, black beady eyes.

"Aah, let's guess, Mally… the Lady wants to travel by hat?"

"I LOVE travelling by hat!" the dormouse exclaimed joyfully and the Hatter chuckled.

"Up with you, then," he said and let Mallymkun step on his hand before lifting her to his hat brim, from where she enjoyed the view.

They headed back to the castle, Mallymkun loved the ride and was adequately distracted from the smiles the Hatter smiled at Alice, who didn't notice them all the time – especially when they were not that boyish.

* * *

TBC

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**A/N:** I'm very, very sorry that it took so long with the new chapter. There is that ugly thing called real life and it scratched at my door not longer contend with being ignored.

As my vacation is over, it may be that one chapter or another is delayed a bit, especially under the week – but I promise the weekend updates will be there regularly.

I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter, it's a bit exposition but I wanted to dive into the thoughts of different characters. The next chapter will, probably, have a bit more action and straight-forward plot.

Please RnR!


	11. Go West it's peaceful never mind

**Go West – ****It's peaceful… never mind.**

Everyone met in a long and a bit dark room inside the castle. The carpet was dark brown just as the wood of the elongated oval table and the suiting chairs, a bit of light was provided by two chandeliers hanging from the low ceiling. This room was very different from the rest of the castle and it was only used by the Queen and her most trustworthy subjects.

Among the heads of the White Knights was the newly appointed General Faux Boldpunch, a tall, middle aged man with blonde hair that showed first white streaks and ice blue eyes, suiting to his white armor. So there actually were older people in this country, Alice realized when she stepped in. The Hatter was already there and leaned over a map Faux had opened, Mallymkun sat on it for a part, wearing new clothing. In the face of coming adventures, when they had returned to the castle from the visit of the Hatters house, Alice had decided to change in something more comfortable. Comfortable as it could get with Victorian clothing, a somewhat light and not too elaborated dress. She still felt not appropriate and wondered how other women on the world could ever live with corsets – or even bound feet like she witnessed in China.

"Now that we are complete," Faux started with a dark voice, "I'll show you what we found out in the last year."

Alice came nearer and the Hatter stepped a bit aside to let her get a better view.

The map showed a draft of Marmoreal and the surrounding counties, specializing in the western provinces and the land beneath. Wonderland was vaster than she had imagined and Alice asked herself if the parts outside of this kingdom were as crazy as this or if they were different. The ink was dark red and the paper was yellowish, it looked quite old, this couldn't possibly be a recent map, but why using an old one? Surely there had been moves of the margins over time.

"As you see, these are the traditional borders of Marmoreal," the General began his explanation. "Right here in the middle, we see the old main border of our country. In the north and the south here and there, those were the old kingdoms of Godia and Meltean, the extensions you see here were brought under our control during the last 120 years, the northern one by marriage, the southern one due military excursion, yet to this day the former territory of Meltean is almost autonomous…"

"Why are you telling us this?" Mallymkun asked, "I enjoy a good history lesson, but how should us help this find out the enemy we are going to face? This map is older than my great-grandmother!" This, however, was not much of a telling as dormice tended to breed fast, through Mallymkun wasn't the most typical example of a dormouse.

General Boldpunch drew in a sharp breath, he didn't like to work with what he saw as non-professionals and there was a good reason the Hatter and Mallymkun used to work alone and leaving the army to do what they had to do. However the White Queen had ordered him personally to work at this to the utmost satisfaction, she wouldn't tolerate communication problems between the two parties she trusted most.

"As you can see between the two extensions of former states, there is a gap from the far west directly, between those extensions, directly bordering onto Marmoreal." He redrew the lines with his fingers, "This gap lies today in the middle of the Western Red Woods. We found that most of the sightings of these… shadow creatures and the subterraneans happened to be around that gap and the borders former borders to the area behind it, and now…"

He drew a circle around the area which was slightly greened in color "This area was former dead land, for some reason, people naturally avoided it, there are no usable minerals we know of, no magic crystals and no important plants or animals living there. For generations nobody surely knew what happened around there, because nobody went there out of some unknown reason and nobody dared to make sure. However it didn't stay that way and roughly 120 years ago, when this map was drawn, there developed a solitary kingdom out there. Kingdom maybe wasn't the right name as one single entity called the Witch With Red Eyes had somehow taken control of the territory alongside with so called shadowy creatures, as legends say – and as we all know legends tend to be true in large parts."

At least that was the case here in Underland. "It is said that the Witch With Red Eyes reigned for some time and spread terror and fear far beyond the borders of her realm. She became more and more a danger to the old Marmoreal until she was defeated and vanished forever."

He looked up, directly at his guests "Or so we thought."

"You want to say that you believe this old … witch has somehow reappeared and is now attacking everyone here?" asked Alice skeptically.

"Just look at them!" replied the General disgruntled "I dare to say there is some very powerful magic involved. If it is a copycat, a heir or the ancient Witch With Red Eyes herself, who knows. We will find out," he looked very serious "it is very important this information doesn't drop out of here. It is a matter solely to our knowledge, if anyone of our citizens even hears the faint whisper of the Witch With Red Eyes, pandemonium would break out and in the crowded state of this very castle, it would be a catastrophe, understood?"

Everyone nodded their heads, understanding the responsibility lying on their shoulders.

"Beside the possible connection to this old legend, did you find out anything more?" the Hatter asked with sharp eyes, concluding: "You haven't told us everything yet."

His eyes met with the Generals, who had to acknowledge Hightopps mindfulness, very thoughtful of a mad man to recognize it.

"We have found some foot steps that lead into nothing," he said, "yet all together they always led to the old border and the only sightings of shadow creatures we had outside of these borders were at night. However…" he said with a mournful face "these were the most disastrous, the citizens caught in their sleep were killed. They just lay there with white eyes, neither moved nor breathed. Whole families have been destroyed this way."

Alice felt very uncomfortable, when the Red Queen reigned, there had been many deaths but those were public and everyone knew where and how they were earned, most people could at least hide. This didn't sound like anyone could hide or flee; it was something coming for them in their sleep without any recognizable motive, at least the knights around here looked just as frightened and at a loss like her.

"We also found a couple of these," he said grabbing for a small sack sitting on a chair beside him "We think they are some kind of talismans. We don't think they have been left behind willingly, however some of the shadow creatures were described as not very intelligent, a rare few of them was trapped by brave citizens until the morning came and they vanished in the sun."

He emptied the sac and there were different kinds of magical utensils, like amulets with faces and animals on them, needles with feathers and pearls, multiple knotted bands and small, wild haired and very brown puppets*. The Hatters eyes widened for a moment and he gasped without a tone before controlling his posture again. However Alice had already noticed his reaction.

"Do you know these things?"

"No," he replied astonishingly confident.

"Are you sure?" she asked again.

"I said: No."

Now this was a very strong reaction in Alice eyes and while the others didn't seem to mind it, possibly as they also didn't know what to do with these talismans, Alice was sure that the Hatter was keeping something in the closet. She would have to ask him later as she was sure he recognized them, she was sure because the skin around his eyes and cheeks had a new pinkish shadow and his hair started to curl again.

"Can you show me where you found them?" Tarrant asked and the Faux pointed out the places were some of the talismans were found, the most were found in a small territory in the southwest of said gap to old Marmoreal. It was a wooded area which nowadays wasn't that near any villages. The only people going there were woodcutters and hermits maybe, or the one and other misguided herbalist looking for rare herbs on the scarce ground.

"This is interesting," the Hatter commented very seriously and not quite acting like himself, at least not quite as confused as Alice knew him most of the time, although she knew he had serious and dangerous sides – "What significance could this region ever have? It is remote; there are no villages and nothing of importance we know of… uhm… so why send the dark creatures there? And if there was something important, why send the most stupid creatures that always lose their talismans?" He tilted the head "Except this is a trap to lure us into the most remote region so that our bodies will never be found, this time for real."

Alice gasped – loudly- of this thought, the General almost did the same but changed it into a gnarl, damn it, that Mad Hatter was right! Why hadn't he seen it before? He really thought to have a good lead but now that it was spoken, it was obvious. Beware, by the glorious Queen Mirana, if they had went there, they would have died!

Due to his white armor, nobody could see that he had went quite pale, yet it was obvious some of the Knights felt very green.

Mallymkun stood up and walked enthusiastically over the border "If they want us to be in the south, they will expect us there, whoever it is," she drew her newly acquired sword, much better than the makeshift-sword of a hairpin she had used during Alice's last visit, "Then we should sneak in by the north and surprise them!"

"However," the Hatter added coldly "Sneaking in won't be easy with an army of white knights." His eyes focused on Faux Boldpunch.

The General returned the look and gnarled deep in his throat. The Hatter wouldn't come off this easy, he wouldn't be left behind and he would solve this mystery and destroy whatever menace waited for him. He would make sure the Mad Hatter wouldn't go rogue again, not while he had the command over this operation.

Alice watched the thick tension between the Faux and the Hatter, even a blind man could have seen it, and if not seen, taste it from the air. How should this obviously so dangerous mission ever go well if the two most important persons were snarling at each other like young dogs in the park?

With a sigh, she felt the responsibility lying on her shoulders become one or two pounds heavier, she really had to learn because she felt that again things would depend on her intervention.

* * *

TBC

* * *

* Some of you may not be aware of it, therefore this explanation: The reference is to a special kind of magic. If it reminds some of you of Voodoo, you are right and not. In the Voodoo religions, there is no voodoo-puppet like we see them used in Hollywood-movies. However what is depicted there is the Invultuatio "image sorcery" which was used in ancient Greece, Rome, Semitic regions but also by the Celts. Even in modern times there were people offering their services in this kind of sorcery in remote Scotland. That's what I'm referring to in that scene and it is only one of the reasons the Hatter recognizes them.

**A/N:** I hope you liked this chapter, I decided to introduce a new character, Faux Boldpunch, not only because I needed a Mr. Exposition – oh no *laugh* - I think with the coming menace our heroes will need whatever help they can get. It is always important to know a cavalierly in your back.

Also, I changed the summary a bit to make the story sound more interesting (what it hopefully is?), what do you think about it?

Please RnR, I love reviews!


	12. Tossed and Turned

**AN:** I'm SO sorry for the long time you had to wait for this. I have so much work to do and when my head is full of texts and diagrams and working plans, it is hard to think of anything creative although the chapter sits in your brain and nags around.

You can thank Avril Lavigne for this update. Usually I don't like her music as she screams her songs, but the Alice in Wonderland OST-song brought me into the right mood to write this. While we are at mood – this will be an important topic for the following chapter 12.

I also want to say to Inubaki: THANK YOU for the review. It made me so happy I really do try to finish this, although updates may be less regularly than before. It just depends on my workload per week.

I hope you all enjoy the following chapter, please review! Critic, comments, thoughts – everything is welcome!

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**Tossed and Turned**

Blades collided with sharp noises; dirt was thrown through the air which had become dusty and yellow. She panted and wiped the sweat from her forehead, it was annoying as it soaked through her eyebrows and made its way down into the eyes, making them burn and sore – the dust sure wasn't helping, too – and the sun was shining nonetheless. It was warm, her body ached with pain. She was very tired and the muscles of her back, shoulders and arms were worn out, she had tried a last blow but now she was sure that lifting the sword again would be an impossible task.

Alice stood buckled in her dust-coated summer-dress, letting the blade rest with its tip on the ground. Her eyes closed for a moment and she didn't feel like opening them again, she was that tired, yet didn't have this option.

"I think this is enough," her opponent said, shaking his head in an unpromising manner, the 'this girl will never put off a fight' look was written straight on his face. Her trainer came towards her to free her from the sword, which he lifted effortlessly.

Lystrat was a very tall and lean man, although she wasn't sure 'man' was the right word. Actually, Lystrat was a kind of lizard, through walking uprightly like a human and featuring some anatomic adjustments to this style of moving. He spotted a slender, whip-like tail which caused him wearing a special armor that accounted for it. His skin was a yellowish-green and covered with very small and glittering scales, the hairless head was like a monitor lizards – face elongated, cold eyes, no ears and very, very sharp looking teeth. However fear-inducing his outward opinion was, for an experienced fighter he had proven in the past days to be an all-right fellow with a polite attitude.

Not many had jumped on the Queens call for a trainer for Alice. Everyone counted on her as a champion but not many were experienced as warriors at all not to speak of teaching it and the members of guard and army were hesitant to offer their help, as their head members were not amused about the 'amateurs' hindering their work. Of course, Queen Mirana could have ordered anyone as trainer but she considered the lessons as more fruitful if the teacher was aiming for Alice to _succeed_.

That way, they found Lystrat who lived not near the castle and was once a member of the guard of Nijb-Godia, the still existing neighbor-state of ancient Godia. He had taught Alice for three days now, giving his best to teach her the basics and most important know-how.

Alice took a deep, freeing breath – then had to cough from the dust. She was feeling very unfit right now, for the training and her role as savior-again, too. Lystrat observed how she straightened her clothes and slowly, with aching feet, staggered towards a tree, resting against it. He followed and looked at her sternly "I know that you will never become a warrior," he said with despair in his voice "but you have to put more energy into the training. Stay concentrated. You won't become a fighter in the very short amount of time we have, but the least I can do is to teach you how to NOT die in the first two minutes of combat. On the first day you were so motivated, what happened? You really have to shove aside everything else – your LIFE will depend on how well you remember the training I give you and I'm sorry to give you this speech but you HAVE to be able to HOLD your sword and USE it the way it's intended – it won't help you if you give it away like a bunch of flowers!"

Alice winced, she knew he was right – her life –would- depend on it and yet she wasn't concentrating because of the past days and she couldn't hold the heavy blade. She had never done things that exhausting, there were no muscles in her arms, she wasn't a man and for the first time wished to say 'I can't do that, I'm a woman', at the same time she wanted to slap herself for even thinking that. She never was one of the usual Victorian women, she was special and it was good that way!

Alice looked up to Lystrat "I'm sorry, my hands are shaking, I don't know how I could hold a sword just a second longer."

Lystrat sighed; it wasn't like he couldn't understand this girl at all. Normal training would look very different and under normal circumstances he would have told this girl to put some weight on first. Yet these weren't normal circumstances and so he couldn't offer a normal training. He had to help her as much as he could to make a passable fighter of her in not much more than a week. Realistically thinking, something he was very fond of, this couldn't work but they had no choice. He knew about the problems near the borders, he had had family there – past tense. So he taught Alice tricks she could use to defend herself or make it hard for her opponent to get into an advantageous position. That was what he could give her, but to save her neck she would need a weapon and she would need to HOLD that weapon. She needed strength she didn't have, that was a big problem and he couldn't make out a solution for it now, other than gianting her with some cake. Yet a giant would be a different tactical problem.

"Rest for today, we will start again tomorrow at the usual hour. Please read the book I gave you as far as you can." It was a book about sword- and dagger fighting, a book containing dirty tricks. Every sword-fighter knew that the only way one would be able to survive a fight was having trained to exhaustion before, theory didn't make a good combatant – yet they didn't have the time so it was a last resort thing to do.

Alice nodded "Thank you for your patience," and stumbled slowly away, trying not to show how much she was hurting. She was well aware of the impossible task in front of her, well, what other chance did she have? She still remembered the situation in the Queens Oval Room, the tension between the Hatter and Boldpunch was so thick it could have been cut through. She was needed, someone had to hold them together and as champion it was obvious she would be involved in battle – this time without a magical sword that would tell her what to do and how, that would move her limbs in ways she had never thought of.

She couldn't risk scarring the Hatter forever by dying and leaving Underland to its fate. Also, she was quite fond of living to old age.

Aside from her physical wornness and political sorrows, there was something else deliberately disturbing her concentration. In the past days she hadn't talked more than a word to the Hatter or even Mallymkun. Both were very busy making plans with the General and his men, just as busy they were doing some research but didn't care to involve her in it or just tell her about it. At the utmost she got a response about 'not thinking about it' and better taking care of her training. They had a point, of course, on the one side, but on the other hand they really should know she didn't like to be surrounded by mysteries.

Yet the Hatter was so distant, it was just not like him. He wasn't like himself at all and that was quite frightening for Alice. She thought she knew him and could make out his personality-turns on his mood-coded eyes, but they were green all the time no matter how strange he acted. When they happened to meet, he almost jumped and took the next-best excuse to vanish again and if that wasn't possible he evaded her questions, he was obviously avoiding her. She felt a dark, wet feeling in her chest; it made her… just sad. Really, she couldn't be angry at him, she just felt bad.

It wasn't the only worry, through, every time they talked or she heard him talk to somebody else, he had a very strict and brooding, threatening tone in his voice. She didn't like it, it remembered her of someone, she just wasn't sure who it could be, but whoever it was she was sure to not being able to stand him. He was acting so not-himself, all personality-changes aside, she had never witnessed him so distant, brooding and downright menacing at times. He surely was in a kind of working-frenzy leading to the border situation, what ever could the puppets they had seen have caused him to be that way?

Alice had tried to get her hands on these puppets or find out what they were, but first she wasn't allowed to inspect them – it seemed that no-one except for the General was - and then she hadn't the capabilities to find out more about them than the army already knew – which was almost nothing. They had to do something with witchcraft and they were dangerous, that was all. What did they have to do with the Hatter? She was sure that he must have recognized them; it was the only way to explain his upsetting behavior.

She wished she could talk to him and solve it all, but that wasn't possible if he ran away every time. Before, he had never tried to 'protect' her by leaving her clueless – to the contrary, he trusted her much in everything. Was there, maybe, another reason for avoiding her? Something she couldn't think of right now? Whatever could it be?

Alice had aimed for her quarters to wash herself and get changed; on the way there from the training field she passed the forecourt with fenced-in trees and the fountain. The forecourt was surprisingly empty in the otherwise quite crowded castle but soon she made out the possible reason for it – the Mad Hatter was here and his mood for the past days had caused most temporary inhabitants of the castle to move away when he neared.

She laid her eyes upon him to judge if his mood was still the horrible one of the past days – one could never know – and indeed: It was not.

He looked exactly different from before, which meant that he looked more like himself than before and just like a moody version of himself from her time in Underland before. Now that was Wonderland-logic. She shook her head quickly. No she was sure, his composure had changed completely. In the past days he had walked straight with strengthened shoulders and raised chin, like he wanted to appear taller – an impression that had worked perfectly – more fierce.

Now he looked like a wet sac of laundry. His slim legs spread far away from him, sitting on the broad margin of the fountain. His shoulders hung, his chin hung, the brim of his hat hung, his clothing and him looked inherently depressed.

In his hands, there lay a small brown puppet like the ones Faux Boldpunch had shown them. Yet it wasn't one of them, Alice would have recognized it. This rag doll was scorched by half and had lost an eye, also, the hair looked more like… real black hair than any substitute. She hoped it was horse hair.

When she approached him she heard him mutter "Why must it always be fire?"

It was quite and soft like a lowering wind, "It's always fire, why must it be? Burn, burn, burn, burn everything to ashes. Nothing's left, nothing's living. Black ash rises through the air to the sky."

Alice gulped, she knew what she just heard wasn't intended for her ears and she felt like she had deeply intruded the Hatters privacy, penetrated it.

"Hatter?" she asked softly, hardly daring to disturb him, at the same time feeling the need to.

Tarrant looked up to her with glittering, big green eyes "Do you have any idea why a raven is like a writing desk?"

Alice knew he didn't know the answer more than her, she also knew that he always asked this question when he felt emotions too strong to convey and it was obvious that these strong emotions were sad right now. She sat down beside him.

"Alice?" Only now he seemed to realize that there was someone else in this place. He slowly turned his head towards her, his eyes seemed to fill up with tears, through they didn't really, trembling he took Alice hands into his:

"Alice, please… could you please just stop… dreaming?"

It broke her heart.

Only now she realized how horribly she must have hurt him in the moment they parted, maybe even the moments before. She had hurt him so badly and now she felt all this pain, too. He had always trusted her and so he had finally believed her that everything was a dream, being oblivious to the concept she had drawn out about the nature of Wonderland. She knew she had been wrong for a long time, she was never really sure – until now.

If this had been her dream, she would have never inflicted so much pain on somebody, if this was a dream of her, he wouldn't be suffering.

She sharply drew in some air, biting her lip at the same time and almost making a hissing sound. She felt tears in her eyes and took one hand to gently caress his cheek.

"I can't." _This is no dream; there is no way to wake us up._

He just stared at her with no further reaction, but she broke into a sob. She lay her arms around his shoulders and embraced him, then she felt him laying the rag doll by side and his arms around her, too. He also squeezed her a little, that was more emotion than she had expected. So she squeezed him a little bit, too. He stroke over her back and she did so over his while being careful not to knock against his head.

"I'm sorry," she said.

He just held her, and that way they held each other for quite an undisturbed time.

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TBC


	13. Thirteen Awkward Moments

**Thirteen Awkward Moments**

The partition after this very emotional close moment felt awkward and embarrassing. None of them both knew how to handle it well, therefore they just sat stiffly beside each other, before finding an excuse to leave the scene, speaking it almost in the same moment.

Alice cheeks glimmered red and through it was harder to notice on the Hatters rather pale-again skin, he seemed to be kind of pinkish tinted, too. They stepped away, not yet able to just talk and release the tension of the past days, although the embrace had left a warm and calm feeling in their hearts.

Finally heading for her quarters, Alice realized the Hatter had taken the rag doll with him. Possibly it wasn't a good idea to leave a magical artifact lying around, however there were many questions: Where did he get it? What did it mean to him and whatever did the words he'd said mean? She still felt a shiver run down her spine when she remembered how lifelessly he had spoken them.

She felt better after she could clean herself up and sat down with the book Lystrat had revised her to. Alice had tried to contact the Hatter again when she felt stronger about talking to him, but she only got the information that he had left the castle for some time and Mallymkun was with him.

On the one hand she was upset that he was following his own agenda again, without letting her in, without caring how she put up with the entire situation. On the other hand, she was relieved that Mallymkun was with him, they were a well-oiled team and she would make sure he wasn't doing anything more dangerous than usual.

Deadly tired, Alice fell into her bed almost immediately falling asleep. The next morning came fast and with it the training. She could remember everything she had read and seen, but putting it into practice was a very different thing. Lystrat gave his best and pushed her to her limit, sadly her limit was reached fast. There was only so much an untrained body could endure before breaking down and Alice was near that collapse. They had to stop after two days; she needed rest or wouldn't be much of a champion at all.

Queen Mirana called for Lystrat to give her a status report- the lizard could tell easily that she wasn't pleased. He had never seen the benevolent Queen to show such a failed smile, there had to be more problems than he thought and that the prospects on Alice' training were not promising surely didn't help.

"There is nothing more you can do?" she asked and her brow twitched slightly, indicating a kind of migraine.

"There is nothing more –anyone- could do, Majesty" the lizard said bowed down. "I would love to do more, I would love to call any friend I knew who would be able to make that girl into a warrior during the next days. The Alice has proven to be determined and resourceful, but even she can't learn in a few hours what others learn and train for years. Such a task wouldn't imply skill or training, it would call for magic!"

"Magic, yes…" the Queen said slowly, her migraine seemed to worsen.

"Magic, yes," Lystrat shrugged. What could he do? He was no wizard and if the Queen, who everyone knew was a Healer, had had powers like that among hers, she would already have used them.

"Give her what you can and what she can learn, we have no other choice so I count on you," the Queen said. Lystrat sighed. Nobody could think of opposing Mirana when she laid responsibility on ones shoulders with a matronly glance.

After Alice had recovered from exhaustion and bruises, she was up again as soon her feet would carry her. Just two days after the conversation between the White Queen and Lystrat, she stood up against him on the training field again. Stood up against meant in this case: Being blindfolded during very hot sun hours and waiting to be hit and kicked by an unforgiving trainer who had left her with nothing more than a –stick-.

Lystrat had decided that she would use a staff during this exercise. First, the exercise was for her cognition in the dark, anyway, so her weapon didn't need to be a sword necessarily. Second, a staff was similar enough considering his use and third, it would be the best for the safety of her, the courtyard and of course his.

Because of the sun, the courtyard was rather quiet and she made it quite okay, Lystrat supposed. He had seen more experienced fighters loose their countenance if they suddenly were not able to trust their eyes but Alice seemed to be a natural talent for trusting her ears.

The lizard, of course, couldn't know the hardships Alice went through trusting any of her senses and trusting anything she experienced. Long enough she didn't knew what was right or wrong, real or fantasy and more often than not, she still didn't know it. Not having to see anything was a relief and she had the sentience that she was doing well.

Right now she felt that she had waited quite long for the next attack of her scaly teacher, he wouldn't just go for some tea and leave her alone like this, wouldn't he? Well, she supposed it would fit his sometimes mean attitude, which was his strange way of motivating her. However it was… really strange that she didn't hear him near.

Oh, there! She heard steps again, however sneaky they tried to float soundlessly over the grown, the sand made it impossible. She had the sensation that the steps sounded different, but that could be a trick of Lystrat or it could be caused by sneaking.

Alice felt the blow coming from the left upper shoulder and blocked – ouch!

The vibration moved from the staff through her hands to shoulders and it hurt a bit, more it was just a very unsettling feeling. Whatever hit her wasn't the sword Lystrat usually used while training her.

She hadn't much time to think about it because the next blow came fast and others followed rapidly, she had a hard time blocking them and thankfully not enough to think about what would happen to her if she missed one.

In the first moment she had to breathe, she ripped off the blindfold just to see the Hatter attacking her with a grand upper cut. She shrieked, ducked away under it, through up sand during this, and used the staff to first get up and second block another blow.

"HATTER!" she exclaimed, no wonder the blows were heavier as before – his sword was, too!

"Alice!" the Hatter exclaimed, imitating her tone nonchalantly.

"What are you doing?" she cried appalled, having to avoid the following attack.

"Testing you," he stated seriously and started a new attack with rapidly following moves. Alice could hardly get a hold of herself after the shock, but she didn't have much of a choice. She defended herself the best she could, seeing how the stuff was chopped down more and more – it was only wood, after all.

They moved almost across the whole training field, back to her old friend the tree. She used it to dance around and block the Hatters assaults, saving her staff for some attacks of her own. One time, she even hit him at the shoulder and didn't even feel bad about it – he didn't seem to be too worried about her safety!

It shook up her trust to him deeply, she wasn't sure how much of this was serious, he was attacking her after all – she would never have thought of this!

At one point she did lean out a bit to much and the he got her, she had to fall back quickly to not let her throat be cut, sadly behind her was only the tree and in front of her a sword was pointed at her… she breathed fast, trying not to let her eyes show the fear she felt inside.

Tarrant smiled at her "That was good."

Alice gasped, her voice failing for a moment, then she got a hold of herself, looking at him sternly:

"I would be dead."

"Maybe, possibly," he said tilting his head "But you would have put off a hell of a fight!"

He put away his sword and offered her his hand, which she took, pulling her nearer.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently with true worry in his eyes.

"I should ask you that," she replied, "Where have you been the whole time?"

His eyes darkened and Alice feared he would build a new wall between them, vanishing once again. She squeezed his hand "Please tell me what is going on, don't you trust me anymore?"

The Hatters eyes widened in a short moment of shock, then looking all the more determined and intensive. He held her hand with both of his, saying slowly in a dark voice "Of course I trust you. I wouldn't ever do anything else. You are Alice."

Said Alice felt her heart beating faster, possibly faster than during their whole fight, if he could hear it beating in her chest? Somehow she felt the notion that this was about more than their current conversation.

"Please tell me," she repeated.

"I will, but first take this." He took a necklace from his sporran, decent silver with a small, red stone on it. Alice was too surprised to hinder him from putting it around her neck; normally she would have blushed and being moved by it, never expecting something like this to happen, interpreting deeper motives to that action it was such an… un-Hatterly thing to do. It was very much –not- like the Hatter, it confused her and made her strained.

"What is this?" she asked a bit suspicious.

"It will help," he said assuring, still with that determined yet worried look on his face. Alice could watch that expression falling apart in seconds, forming the more insecure, intensively worried and seemingly jaded Hatter she knew more or less: "We should go now; the others are waiting for us."

"Others?" she asked disrupted.

"In the Oval Room, silly," he replied, smiling as if there had never been this upsetting, serious situation between them just now.

Another thing Alice had to put up with, she supposed. While thinking before that the Mad Hatter wasn't as mad as people thought, she now wasn't entirely sure of it. But however mad he seemed to be at times, most of the time he was her Hatter and she knew everything he did, he did out of loyalty - to his country, his Queen, his friends and … to her, wasn't it that way?

She really had to trust him more, even through she couldn't make out what was going on in his head, he had shown here this time and again that she could count on him and that he did everything with good intentions.

Hopefully these intentions wouldn't cause him to close up again or even more than in the past days. She saw the hope to see the reasons for his strange behavior now; it would surely make it easier for her to calm down again. Thinking this, Alice realized that she was already counting on him again – knowing that she wouldn't be a big help in a battle, she expected him hopefully to having found a solution in the fight against this witch which she was already sure he knew more about than he admitted.

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TBC

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**A/N:** This was a rather short one, I intended to write more but I felt it was better to make a break here, for the next chapter will dive into another topic, maybe leading to the solution?

Thanks again for the review!


	14. Look Into the Past, Take a Step Forward

**Look Into the Past, Take a Step Forward**

They were indeed waiting for them.

Alice had no chance for private time between the dusty training grounds and the Oval Room, therefore she didn't feel quite fresh.

However, 'fresh' wasn't to describe General Boldpunch and some of his men, either. Even Mallymkun looked a bit ruffled.

"How nice that our special guests finally grant us their attendance," sneered the General, bent over a draft-map. He exchanged an intensive glare with the Mad Hatter which was proof to anyone who hadn't already realized, that they felt no sympathies for each other – yet they respected each other enough to not make a move on it, for the sake of the country.

Alice felt a pelt on her tongue for the unnecessary thick concentration of male competition in this room, it made her uncomfortable and she hoped that the two men would come back to the business of this meeting before an already slightly shaking one of the present White Knights would burst into laughter.

Luckily for that knight, they did.

"We know, young lady…" he began and looked at Alice as if she maybe could have missed the reference to her, "that you had nothing worth calling a training and keeping you in this mission lays entirely on the will of our beloved Queen. Be sure what will come will not be something you will ever wish to have heard or seen. If you decide to get out of this, this moment is your exact last chance." He looked at her sternly, not leaving a doubt that he would prefer to leave her here at the castle and that thought –was- probably the sanest one. However nobody in Underland was entirely sane, Alice had really given up on that.

So she straightened herself up, moved the chin a bit forward to look more confident and said was everyone was expecting her to: "I won't back out and I will be a part of this mission. I will do everything I can to free the people of Marmoreal from their hardships." She actually had probed for a sentence like this.

Alice couldn't see it, the Hatter stood sideways behind her back, but his eyes gleamed shortly with a streak that can only be described as proud – yet thankfully almost unnoticeably a spark of red danced within them.

Faux Boldpunch seemed satisfied with her reply and turned over to explaining their further approach to the problem at hand:

The populace was scared because of scary to horrible things happening in the country and therefore fleeing. Those events were caused by beings which were only described at 'shadows' or 'shadow creatures'. Where those beings were sighted, they had found magical talismans and suspicious rag dolls. All in all they could follow the prominent evidence back to a deserted area connected with an old legend of the Witch With Red Eyes which was said to having led a terror-regime based on her magical powers. However they had made out that the evidence they had was spread that directly leading to a certain part of that area, it could be nothing else than a trap.

A knight rolled out another map that showed the once country-triangle in a bigger focus, some colored lines had been added with needles and thread.

"We decided to do it this way," he started acknowledging the Hatters involvement with a nod, "we actually will go in there with a part of our troops, some of the chainmail will be empty, however, to led our troop seem bigger. You will all come with me there; it will be deadly dangerous, that I can assure you. So be careful to look after each other but first save your own ass and let the professionals handle any situation we might run into. And we will. As we have come to agree about, this will most certainly be a trap and our trap will be the bait with everyone in it the enemy seems to care about."

He changed to another color "We will be secured by two flanks here and here, re-enforcements will divide from the main troop on our way there and make a curve to the northeast. We calculated that this is the direction from where our enemy most probably will take part in any event they prepared for us, so he has to have some sort of base in the woods. By turning this curve we can attack the enemy from behind hopefully before he attacks –us-, so the main-troop and the flank-troops can turn into battle with a known enemy."

He turned around and looked at everyone in the room with a gaze mixed off determination, motivation yet also desperation "It is our only option if we don't want to sit here and wait until the shadows kill us in our sleep. We have to intervene, we have to take this lead and turn the situation to our advantage. We WILL have to fight with all means and some of us will lose their lifes, but it will be for the greater good of Marmoreal! Are you with me?"

His voice had risen and sounded more powerful, the General knew how to encourage his men no matter what he felt inside. This way, nobody opposed the plan, instead the knights cheered on their General, while Mallymkun and the Hatter seemed satisfied to their own plans.

Only Alice stood above all this, she didn't care for the show the General had given, only for the plan itself. They were bait. SHE was bait, from all the persons going there she was the only one who had no other function than to stand there with a I'm-the-champion-come-and-get-me-mark attached to her. What if she didn't make it? Would they win? Probably… hopefully. But what would become of the Hatter? That was the most important question now. She was sure that the army was able to fight of anything as soon as they were not scared by shadows anymore, she was sure Underland could go back to peace again without her help or moral uphold. The Hatter, on the other side, wouldn't get over losing her – he hadn't yet about the last time, and that hadn't been forever.

How could she go there? How could she fight in what could be a real war? Whatever –could- she do to the best of her, her friends and Marmoreal?

The choice lay behind her, she couldn't back away now and she wouldn't. She was never so happy for that moment she didn't think, because if she had to make the same decision now, she wasn't sure she would stand up for the battle. But now what was done was done and as she listened to the Generals further elaborations, they would move out in three days – after the first troop had been sent out, leaving her with a joke-time of preparation and rejuvenation.

* * *

After the meeting was over, Alice looked out for the Hatter. Sneakily he had already steered towards a dark corridor, Mallymkun on his hat.

"Hatter," she approached him.

For a moment his posture was open and inviting, but then closed up again. "Alice…I have… things to do."

"I want to talk with you."

The Hatter was clearly hesitating, his back and forward movements made the dormouse on his head kind of dizzy "It is really important that I…" he started to evade.

"I want to talk," Alice posture was adamant; her facial expression didn't seem to accept any resistance.

"You have heard him! We have a really important appointment with… the White Queen! So will you please let go, you two can…" started Mallymkun to defend her friend.

"As you wish, Alice, let's talk."

"Oh! Great!" snapped the dormouse "Just stab me in the back! That's what I get for helping you out!" disgruntled she climbed from the hat and jumped to the floor, lifting her nose "I'll find my way!" demonstratively she walked down the corridor, waiting for an apology that didn't come.

The Mad Hatter looked at her expectant.

"Not here," said Alice and lead him into a separate tea room she had found mostly empty days ago. Instead of sitting down when she sat herself at the table, the Hatter went straight through the room to the next window, looking out of it and avoiding visual contact. Alice sighted inside, this really was unusual behavior, the Hatter she knew at least tried to be a bit polite around her since they met again, not so for the gone week. A day before yesterday, she had hoped to finally warm up with him again but it didn't happen. However she could let this drag her down, she had a mission: Finding out what it was with that puppet and to the best: Whatever upset the Hatter in this awful way.

"Hatter, what is it with you?" Alice asked. "You have been so distant in the past days, I know something upset you, I know it has something to do with these… puppets," she stood up and walked slowly towards the window where the Hatter stared unto the kingdom of Marmoreal. There was no answer.

"I know that the puppet you had with you at the fountain isn't one of the General's," there was still no reaction. Carefully she laid her hand on the lower arm of the Hatter. "You said something about everything burning to ashes… yet we know it isn't the Red Queen. Are you… still suffering from back then? But what has the doll to do with it?"

Now she could clearly see how the Hatter's face grew bitter and how his lips pressed firmly together.

"Tell me, Hatter, what happened there to you? Tell me, maybe we can help y…"

"SHUT UP!" Suddenly he shoved her to the side and ripped his arm free, taking a few steps away, turning around and again, walking in a circle "Ah cannae! YE CANNAE! NAEB'DY can!" his eyes had turned into a fiery orange and his voice was more of a growl.

Alice didn't back away but walked with him, instead of fleeing she made eye-contact:

"I want to know what is happening to you! Why do you think that, uhm…nobody can help? Have you had anyone try it? Why are you turning your back on me?"

He had tried to turn away again, but now came back with a growl "D'ye no ken? Ah wantae protect ye!"

Alice needed a moment to make out what he just had shouted at her, she frowned "… protecting from _what_ would that be?"

"Ah dinnae ken!" he growled while gesturing wildly.

"Do… you mean that you don't know?"

He stood silent; therefore Alice guessed that she was right with her interpretation. She came near although he was still growling.

"The curse again?" she tilted her head to read his face "No… it isn't, is it?"

"I don't know…" the Hatter said quietly avoiding her gaze.

"Please… tell me what is troubling you, tell me what you think you can," she tried to lead him back to the table, but he didn't let her yet.

His big, green eyes looked really deeply troubled, he thought about how far he could go, if he could risk it at all. He had no answer to the question he didn't know. How could he tell her what he felt deep inside and couldn't find words to describe it to himself, not to speak of at all?

Would she even understand it? And what was won if she didn't, or did?

Slowly he sat down. Alice waited for him patiently – at least she looked like that on the outside.

"Everytime I close my eyes…" he croaked "I… see only redness. Everything around me… Sometimes I feel heat and then… then I hear scream… that is all."

He took a deep breath "I don't know more about this, I only… _know_ that something horrible has happened and… that I'm responsible for it."

"But Hatter, how can that be?"

"I wished I knew that," he replied in a quiet voice, shaking his head "I wish I wouldn't feel what I feel it is… that feeling is…" his fingers started to tremble, "it is the death of my family all over again…"

He laid his hands on his face, shook his head once more and abruptly stood up.

"I know it was my fault, but I don't know what! I have that feeling that I'm a grave danger for everyone around me…everyone who is important to me, and you are." he sounded panicked.

Alice reached out for him "Hatter, you…"

"Don't touch me!"

"Hatter, you said…"

"AH told ye dinnae…!" he growled again but Alice rose:

"Don't give me that!"

"It's everything! Everything around me burns down and becomes dust!" he shook. "Everything becomes dust and ash and dust and ash… until nothing lives anymore! Nobody is left, the whole clan Hightopp, burned to the ground!"

"The Red Queen is gone and the Jabberwocky too, they can't hurt you anymore, or anyone!"

But the Hatter couldn't hear her.

"When nothing lives anymore…. when everything burns, turns to dust, turns to ash… nothing's there anymore…" he breathed sharply and shook in a fit of panic.

Alice gasped with wide eyes "Hatter! HATTER, STOP IT! Your skin… you are turning again… oh my Lord, HATTER!" she screamed.

At last he heard her and snapped out of it. Confused he looked around, how did he come to the middle of the room? Hadn't he just sat over there? And why lay the smell of burnt wood in his nose?

Alice looked at him in shock; she had seen the Hatter in bad situations but never in a breakdown like that.

Slowly Tarrant realized what Alice had said and touched his cheek, somehow he felt different. Indeed, the paleness had faded again for a more natural skin tone and his hair had looked darker for a moment, but changed back then. The curse was working again, Tarrant could feel it.

"Hatter, are you…"

"I'm fine," he replied Alice's worried question. They both needed a moment to calm down.

"I-I'm sorry that I have worried you," said the Hatter nervously.

"I'm… only worried about you. That just… I was …"

"It won't happen again," he said decidedly, but Alice shook her head:

"You can't know that and… don't be ashamed of it. You can trust me and whatever you do, I will be there and I won't ever be scared of _you_. How… how long has that been going on?"

The Hatter looked down at the table plate, frowning and intensively thinking about it "I'm not quite sure if it hasn't been there before but I think it started when I found that rag doll, which as you noted is a different one than those of the General."

"Where did you find it?" Alice investigated.

"I found it in the house of a family the shadow creatures have murdered… in a village not far from here," he winced "I'm terribly sorry, Alice, I don't want to scare you but I think the shadows already protruded to the vicinity of the castle."

"That _is_ terrible, Hatter. Have you told the General about that?"

He snorted "Yes, I have. Not that it helped him making any move any faster. However I did mention I found proof of the shadow creatures near…. not the doll."

"Why not?"

"It didn't feel right."

Alice didn't feel right, too. Was the Hatter only relying on his feelings and instincts? Couldn't that be a horrible mistake considering the lacking parts of his memory?

"What does this rag doll mean to you?"

He closed his eyes for a moment like in pain "It reminds me of things past."

"What things?"

The Hatter stood up "Look, how the time flew by! I still have that appointment with Queen Mirana, really, I do. This isn't a lie, I would never lie to you, I really have to go now!" he headed for the door.

"Oh Hatter, don't turn your back on me again!" she followed and he turned around a last time:

"I won't, you listen, Alice? You showed me it was wrong to hide, but we have no time for this now and no time to think about it, we will move out in a few days and Alice – you should _prepare_ for it. Stop worrying about me. I'm fine."

He could see that this woman wasn't happy about being cast aside "I will meet you for your last training tomorrow, is this alright with you?"

She sighed "It is. Just go now…"

"Alice I…"

"GO."

His eyes turned into a dark green and even his clothes seemed to be sorry, before he closed the door behind him.

Alice was left behind, she desperately needed a moment to decide that between screaming of rage and crying out of desperation she would do none of these and head for something useful. She couldn't deny, through, that the situation left her frustrated – in a way she could understand that the Hatter didn't want to talk to her about it, she really didn't understand it. But she would try and she would find out what exactly tortured him. She owed him that.

* * *

Later that day, she had an appointment with the White Queen herself. The Queen had invited her earlier for dinner and Alice attended in a dress that had been brought and designed by Queen Mirana's favorite tailor.

After some casual chit-chat with which the Queen tried to lighten up the mood – futilely – things went down to business very fast. Alice told her that she had talked to the Hatter but left out the delicate details.

"It's just how he is," the Queen explained "Tarrant can seem so light and easy to go, but everything he does is dedicated. He is a patriot and I greatly trust him as one of my most loyal subjects, you have to understand that he is very dedicated to the military preparation right now."

"That is exactly why I'm worried…" Alice started, "Everyone is concerned with the preparations for the great attack, but I can't help. I still don't understand how I can be of any use for this task."

The Queen twitched with one eye-brow like she was getting a migraine. How could she admit to Alice that the Oraculum had actualized itself and shown her on this mission right into the Western Red Woods. She didn't have good experience with the Oraculum the last time; she didn't want to dispirit her.

"Trust me, you will be of use. Don't underestimate your keen mind and don't let them intimidate you with military jargon." _You are of importance, without you, we won't find out who attacks us and how to stop them_.

Alice knew these were only nice words, but they did calm her a bit. Yet she was worried about another thing.

"Queen Mirana, your Highness… do you know what happened to the Hightopp clan when the old castle was attacked?"

"What are you talking about?"

Alice was irritated by the question "I don't know much about the time before the Red Queen, the Hatter said that when the Jabberwocky attacked, he killed his clan…"

The Queen laid down her fork and looked seriously "He did say that?"

"Yes, Queen Mirana."

"I don't know what to make of this," the Queen said in thoughts and explained: "As far back as I can remember there was only one Hatter at the court at one time. Tarrants father and when he stopped making hats, Tarrant took over… I think. At least that was what was told me, I was far away from hat-wearing then. However…" she looked surer now:

_"There never was a Hightopp clan at the court."_

* * *

TBC

* * *

**A/N:**

If anyone asks him- or herself what Hightopp clan I'm referring to – as canon beside the movie I also use the novel by Sutherland. It adds some details and explained that among the people we saw burn in the movie was the entirety of what was called the Hightopp clan.

I usually don't write out accents much, however I thought it fit with the rage of desperation the Hatter felt here. I hope I did it right, hunting down some Scottish slang dictionaries, books and movies. Not sure about the Glaswegian, through, I looked up that "ken" was especially used in Glasgow for "to understand something".

**ETA: Now with advice of a real Glaswegian, big, big-hearted thanks to koukatsukoneko!**

If I can make anything better in the dialogue, feel free to point it out. Or anything else, I'm glad about concrit!


	15. Watch Your Back

**Watch Your Back**

Alice was devastated.

The night had been a horror for itself. She couldn't sleep right; through she would've needed that sleep dearly. How was she expected to sleep after what she had learned during the Dinner with Queen Mirana?

In the morning she felt listless, despising the breakfast she had got and staring at the table in front of her. She had remembered something.

Many things she had forgotten in the past and only some had stayed alive in her memory, when she had returned to Wonderland that time when she was 19, her memories had been fuzzy and she got many new impressions of the people living there.

But that night she had remembered some more of her earlier trips to Wonderland and she remembered that the start she and the Hatter had wasn't the best. She had hated him, as a child he was very scary for her, he wasn't the nicest person back then, either. The fear had made her hate him and he was one of the masks that had haunted her at night.

It changed when she came back, after the horrible entrée at that time; he was the very first person that was actually happy to see her. Thinking back, she couldn't understand why – she had been a child the last time he had seen her. Yet he had been friendly then, very polite and he protected her from the Red Queens mobs.

However, the most important moment for her was when he had told her about the fate of his late family and under what cruel circumstances they had perished, leaving him all alone as the last surviving Hightopp. She still had the lively pictures in her head that she had imagined hearing his tale, how he told her that he crawled at the floor, only finding the ashes of his relatives. Her heart felt heavy as it had back then. It had been a very important moment for her – it was the moment the Mad Hatter had gained her sympathy.

He had lied.

How could he lie to her? Didn't he want her to trust him all the time? What could be the reason for this?

She was really bitter, if she couldn't believe him… who could she believe then at all? Alice realized that from now on she had to take everything he said with a grain of salt. What did she know about him at all? If not for the mentioning of the Queen, she still wouldn't even know his first name. She couldn't remember that people had mentioned it during her last trip, but he had never told it to her himself.

There had never been a Hightopp clan, not as he had told her. What had he intended with that story? How could he fantasize about something so awful?

It made her sad and angry at once, she never had felt so betrayed. And where she was at it, she found more things that just didn't seem right: The White Queen had told her that she was still a child when he became the hatter to the court. Yet he surely didn't look the part and Alice thought that people in Wonderland just would age differently, but she remembered that when she was a child, he was still friends with time instead of having a disagreement with it. Something was wrong here.

How did the tiles fit together? For a moment her brain started to work on that puzzle and the tiles she had – somehow this all had to do with him. He was the one who accidently came to London or the Otherland how they called it here. He was cursed together with Mallymkun but well… those two were rarely singled. He didn't age like he should – or knew some beauty-secrets the Ladies of London would kill for – and he had lied to her about his family dying when the Red Queen took over. Most importantly he knew that magical puppet and somehow had terrible fear of a certain kind of fire. Fire had burnt everyone he loved… oh how stupid could she be?

It was the same story! He had lied again and that way she still wasn't more knowledgeable about that rag doll than before.

Frustration mixed with anger, fear, desperation and the deep sadness she felt. Her emotions took over and she couldn't stand sitting here one moment longer. Alice stood up, tied her hair roughly and went out. She wasn't quite sure where she was going but the corridor looked somehow familiar – they all looked very similar, through.

Walking ever so faster and faster, she felt tear building in her eyes. She tried to blink them away, snuffled but couldn't win. She avoided the corridors she heard voices coming from and that way reached the lower balcony that led to one of the inner gardens. That was where she sat down behind a small pavilion and just cried.

Whatever should she do? She was stuck here; there was a new kind of war she was involved with once again, this time without magical weapons, without knowledge, just being a hindrance. She was stuck with a General that saw her as a low form of life and a friend she couldn't trust anymore!

She had tried to find out what really happened when the Red Queen took over. However she knew that this was a delicate topic and as expected, everyone she asked closed up rapidly.

As Mirana had been very open that evening she had tried after the revelation to acquire some more details, but when Mirana changed the topic in an overly cheerful manner to something nice and irrelevant she knew that there wouldn't come any useful information.

Alice had detected McTwisp, however only hearing from that day made him pant and vanish as fast as he had never seen it. She couldn't even start to say her question to the Marchhare, as he had thrown a cup at her, but with the mention of that day threw a whole arsenal of kitchen utensils and cursed gibberish at her as if she was a bad person – she had no other chance than to flee behind the door.

The whole situation made her feel unbelievably powerless and small. She had though these times to be over. When she had left Wonderland the last time, she had been rejuvenated, feeling strong and self-secure. She had aims in life and the determination to acquire those aims on every way that led to them. Now however it was exactly the opposite. After learning how to be a strong adventurer and corporate representative, Wonderland had taught her the limits, had shown her how pathetic she was.

That way she sat there, hand around her knees, the hair ruffled by the wind, tears running down her cheeks.

"Now what have we here?"

She gasped and quickly wiped the tears away, although she couldn't believe whose voice she heard. Or maybe she could, it was… quite typical of the Cheshire Cat to arrive in a situation like this. Somehow he always appeared when she felt lost. Partly in front of her appeared a big grin, two big eyes and a fluffy head that tilted to the one and to the other side, every time almost in a right angle.

He came nearer "You didn't think I would leave you here all alone, didn't you? Of course, you did. But I don't bear grudges. I came here to…"

Now he appeared fully, almost directly in front of her lap. He stretched a bit and tilted the head almost 180 degrees in a very interested manner

"Oooh-oooh…" he said sweetly when he saw the necklace around Alice neck. She had almost forgotten it as it was a very light material and she had different problems.

"What is it?" she asked, still surprised at his appearance. Although she was told that he played an important act freeing the Hatter once, Chessur had a reputation of being a coward. She had been pretty sure that he didn't immediately vanished at all when they reported the White Queen where Hatter and Mallymkun had been the past year, but since he hadn't appeared again since then she had thought him to be gone for good.

"Where did you get that necklace?" the cat asked dreamily, like he had forgotten for what he had come here.

"What? Oh… it…" her face grew dark and sad again "The Hatter gave it to me, why do you ask?"

"Ohhh…" Chessur said rolling his eyes "Nothing of importance. It is just a very nice necklace. The Hatter must have too much time at his hands," his tongue ran from one edge of the mouth to the other.

"What do you mean by this?"

He smirked his dangerous grin in a mockery of innocence.

Alice wasn't amused and huffed "Fine, you came why…?"

"Ah!" he exclaimed "Why so aggressive, my dear? I came only with good intentions, of course if you don't need my help I can just turn and go aga-…"

"No, Chessur, I'm sorry I… if you think you can help, I would really appreciate it."

"Ooooooh!" the Cheshire Cat turned her head energetically a 360 degrees "You will appreciate it, well, I hope you will remember this, my dear."

In front of Alice lay now a vial with a silvery-green liquid, which was smitten into a token; it remembered her a bit of Jabberwocky blood, but that had a very different color.

"What is this?" she asked curiously.

"You will know when you need it," he said nonchalantly

"But how do I know when to use it if I don't know what it does?"

"You will know what it does when you need what it does," he replied, mysterious as ever. Although always to the opposite of what he was saying, the cat had always helped her – at least all the times she could remember:

"… Thank you, Chessur," Alice said then, calmly.

"It was a pleasure," he retreated "If you excuse me, I feel too much of the war approaching by now," and with that he vanished.

"Wait, what you mean by…" Alice had stood up but it was too late. What did he mean by that? Somehow it gave her a scary tingling down her spine, she knew the first troop would go tomorrow but she felt that Chessur hadn't referred to that.

Alice took the Token which had a cord she could use to bind it to her girdle, as she did. Those last words of Chessur had alarmed her and remembered of the responsibility lasting on her shoulders.

She shook off the confusion and mixed feelings as she was able to focus again. Mad Hatter here or not, she couldn't risk to care. She had to give her everything if she wanted her friends to survive, to survive herself and maybe…maybe go home.

She hadn't thought about going back to London again until today. She had realized that she was a burden to her sister no matter how successful she was, her social awkwardness didn't help. She had felt so alright here, she had felt among friends and she had felt… at home with the Hatter. But this feeling was gone now, he had abused her trust – it had shattered and she didn't know yet if it was worth gathering the shards from the floor.

She decided to visit Lystrat, who was quite surprised by this but more than satisfied. It was always a good thing if a trainee came for the training because he, in case, she realized that it was necessary.

The lizard had never experienced that woman so aggressive and full of strength. He realized that Alice probably compensated something but he couldn't even care. He saw that she remembered what he had taught her but she didn't seem to realize just how good she was using her new skills. The training grew intensive and Lystrat felt mysteriously relieved when he sent her off for a bath. If she could find that energy she had just shown during a real fight she still wouldn't compare to a warrior, but her chances to survive would be a lot higher.

Alice felt good, too, relieved, also. For some hours she could forget the topical events and she hadn't seen the Hatter today, so she could evade him fully and she felt that was a good thing. Clean but tired she fell to her bed, sensing an anxious lump in her stomach that remembered her of the troop that would move out tomorrow, and that this day had been luxury – she wouldn't be able to evade her problems.

~!~

During dusk Tarrant had arrived in his chamber again. He had left Mallymkun with McTwisp as they needed him for a special task but it would require braveness – something McTwisp wasn't known for. If someone could persuade him to act in their plan, it was Mallymkun. The rabbit seemed to have a soft spot for her – and if it was just out of fear of her sword.

He had ignored what happened the last evening, he had tried to concentrate only at the plans he had drawn out and presented to the Queen. She had agreed with everything he suggested, which was a good thing as they didn't have much time. Now the most important groundwork was laid and a bad feeling took over when he stood at the window again, watching the sunset and the red burning sky around it. There they were again, the bad pictures and the screams, the smell of burnt wood, hot stone and baked flesh. Faces appeared in front of his mental eye, but he couldn't make them out. It irritated him… he knew his clan. He knew how they looked when the Jabberwocky killed them, so where were these pictures coming from?

They made him fear and gave him physical pain, a burning sensation ran over his face and sword-arm. He knew something wasn't alright with him, it had never been but it seemed to only become worse. If it was the curse or not, he knew he was responsible for whatever had happened and he couldn't risk endangering the people he cared for. He thought of Alice. She was so disappointed by him, he knew he hurt her but he had to, keeping her safe. He hadn't seen her all days and he missed her, his heart all gloomy. He remembered the scene at the fountain. How she touched his face, holding her again, never that long and that near… he missed that feeling. He would have liked to do it again yet didn't know how. How did one approach a woman and ask for a hug? Even if he knew that, he felt it wasn't the right time. Not in this situation, not after what happened, not with those visions haunting him.

It was painful, it made him sad but as he also felt anger against the damned Jabberwocky and the Bloody Big Head, his anger only got more fuel. He felt the change in him stronger than before. He felt more secure; he felt every single muscle of his body consciously, which were carefully hidden under his clothing. In this way he could turn the anger into useful ways and he often had all the most greatest ideas… as soon as he calmed a bit. For that he had to look away from the sky which stirred up those visions, so he looked into his room and twitched.

He was sure that… a moment was needed to adjust his reddish gleaming eyes to the dark of his room, and then he was sure that something had moved.

He took one slow step and another to the middle of the room, taking the sword with high art of soundlessness, then another step to the side, approaching his door… "THERE!" he called out pointing the sword at whatever he thought he made out.

In the first moment there was nothing, but then peeled a big dark being from the wooden wall – it was entirely flat, the eyes and broadly grinning mouth where only holes in the blackness, giving way to the red lighted wood behind them. It was one of the shadow creatures.

It seemed to laugh without a sound, bended and elongated itself, switching through the rills of the door beneath it.

The Hatter gasped in terror "Nay…" he croaked, "ALICE!"

Opening his door rapidly he stormed out and down the corridors, where he heard slithering sounds and some otherworldly whispers.

That, of course, had to mean nothing as these creatures were rarely alone and could be everywhere, that fast they could be.

Tarrant didn't know why he thought of Alice before the Queen, he just had the feeling they would be after her, and he had the feeling that it was his fault again. He regretted not killing that creature on sight… sadly he didn't even know how, so why did he even think that? It made no sense thinking about not killing a creature that wasn't to kill, yet the thought was there?

His eyes were just an orange color when he reached his destination, however, how should he know?

~!~

Alice roomed had sunk into darkness. The window usually spent the light of moon and the stars, which was silvery but there. Now everything was just blackness in which stood a single bed, Alice sleeping on it. She didn't know in which grave danger she was, as several of the shadow creatures had lined around her, cackling in anticipation for their feast. Besides her being the aim they were ordered to hit there were two more reasons she would be a perfect sacrifice for their master.

The four smaller creatures waited for a bigger one to give a sign and it finally nodded, allowing them each to take a part of her soul and rip it.

"..lice… lice.. ALICE!" In this very moment, loud pounding was heard from where the door had to be and indeed, Alice woke up, by this breaking the darkness spell, leaving the creatures standing in her ordinary room.

Alice looked around and screamed in horror at those things that had surrounded her.

The Hatter, who had tried to open the door to no avail was no able to kick it in and with a swift move he was inside. Another swift move of his sword cut two shadow creatures in two, an action that only resulted in them peeling into two pieces, each of the four pieces now crawling to the other creatures and becoming one with them.

Alice couldn't yet realize what was going on, but she jumped to the Hatter's side, which was now creature-free. He laid an arm on her shoulder, moving her behind him while he struck an intimidating pose against these creatures.

They sneered and elongated into different directions through the room, coming dangerously near. Only when he growled at them with reddish eyes they looked disappointed and melted down floor, where they crept through some rills of the wooden floor. It seemed like they had fled.

Alice hyperventilated in shock and her heart raced, the tears came only now. They had been so close… so unbelievably close… those dangerous creatures that killed people in their sleep. They were here. They had almost got her. This was horrible, remembering the Bandersnatch she had been at least able to see him – he was big and strong and had sharp claws and teeth but she was able to see him and RUN. These creatures? She couldn't see them, she had only seen wavering air and felt a deep horror inside, when the Hatter came in and through that strange air she knew that something really WAS there.

"Alice? Have they harmed you?" Green eyes lay softly upon her when she looked up. He had saved her… as promised he was there. She was fine, they hadn't done her any harm because he had been there in time, if he hadn't come… she probably would be dead by now.

When Alice flung her arms around him and sobbed against his shoulder, Tarrant got his hug – through he would have preferred absolutely different circumstances. He rested the empty hand against her back and held her as long she needed him too.

"Shh," he said "Calm down. I'll take you away, you can't stay here."

He doubted the shadow creatures would be back tonight, but he also knew another thing: The castle wasn't safe anymore.

* * *

TBC

* * *

**A/N:** Woot, some more action in this chapter! I hope you liked it. I was afraid the beginning was a bit too moe/ depressed, so I hope I got the right drift off it.

Please comment and/or concrit! And thanks to all the people who have fav'ed this story, I'm glad that you like it and I try to not disappoint you in the course of the following chapters.

If anyone wonders how long this story will go, we are at approximately (I gave up on giving guarantees) 5/8 of the plot.


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